Cool Fans and Hot Air

Tailgating tubs of lard, painted faces, swilling beer and cheering in obnoxious tones. Folks who love to watch but whose girth suggests that they don’t actually engage in anything that would resemble sports or exercise. That’s what many people picture as a typical driven sports fan with a powerful affiliation to the local team(s). But that’s not the image that experts have produced in research which is now available in a new book – Sport Fans: The Psychology and Social Impact of Spectators by psychologist-researchers, Daniel L. Wann Merrill J. Melnick, Gordon W. Russell and Dale G. Pease. “‘Sports fans are quite active physically, politically and socially,’ [noted co-author Wann]… Scientists have found that being a sports fan can be good for your emotional, psychological and social health.

“Fans who identify with a local team have higher self-esteem, are less lonely and are no more aggressive as a group than non-sports fans, according to Wann… ‘Pretty much any way you look at it, the more you identify with a local team, the more psychologically healthy you tend to be,’ said Wann, who has studied sports fans for 25 years. ‘You have a built-in connection to others in your environment. If you live in San Francisco and you are a Giants fan, it's pretty easy to be connected to others.’

“Sian Beilock, associate professor in psychology at the University of Chicago, found another benefit of being a sports fan. She found that playing or watching a sport improves language skills when it comes to discussing that sport…Beilock studied hockey players, fans and people who had never seen or played the sport…What she found was the region of the brain usually associated with planning and controlling actions is activated when fans and players listen to conversations about their sport. Watching could be a lot closer to actually doing than previously thought, she said.” CNN.com, April 13^th. For men, fandom adds an increase in testosterone and sexual performance as well.

So being a sports fan is good for you, right… all upside and beneficial? Well, not exactly all good. “However, some sports fans get too wrapped up in the outcome of the games. And in certain cases, the emotional stress associated with rooting for a sports team could lead to physical trouble… Dr. Robert A. Kloner, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Research at the Heart Institute of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles and a professor at Keck School of Medicine of USC, studied cardiac death rates in Los Angeles County after the Los Angeles Rams lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1980 Super Bowl. Kloner and his team found that cardiac death rates in men and women increased after that game, played at the Rose Bowl…

“Dr. Bryan Schwartz, a cardiovascular fellow at the Heart Institute of Good Samaritan Hospital, said studies show that older patients and those with pre-existing conditions would be at a greater risk… ‘In some cases, I think what happens is that the sporting team becomes almost like an extended family,’ Kloner said. ‘If your extended family is not doing well and getting beaten in the final quarter of the game, you can understand how there may be an emotional reaction,’ which can then lead to a cardiac event.

“The findings mirrored a study in Europe that linked World Cup soccer game losses to cardiac deaths in the losing country…‘There's a recurring pattern that a sporting event can increase cardiac events and death rates when some conditions are met: when the fans are of the losing team, when the game is played at home, particularly when the losing team was expected to win, especially in a game that goes into overtime or has a shoot-out,’ Schwartz said.” CNN. Hmmm…. from hard attack to heart attack… not good.

I’m Peter Dekom – diehard ice hockey fan – and I guess that like most things in life, a sense of balance and common sense probably makes it all tolerable… and remembering that in professional sports, it’s the best team that money can buy no matter where the players really come from.