How sports affects the psyche of fans

There is nothing wrong with rejoicing at the victory of your favorite team. But to organize mass riots because of it is at least strange. Where is the line when the interests of others become more important than one’s own? Why do fans become obsessed with sports at some point? Let’s find out together with sports psychologists – master of neurolinguistic psychotherapy Andrei Gagaev and master of sports international class in biathlon Anna Eliseeva.

sports psychologist

A fan is not a fan, and everyone has a special reaction to the winning or losing of “their” team. “Fire” breaks out where there is a struggle of interests among people who are similar in psychological characteristics and united by a common sense of dissatisfaction.

What is fanaticism and in what does it manifest itself?

Fanaticism in sports is a passionate devotion to a team. A sports fan keenly experiences the successes and failures of his club. If winning is a violent joy, then losing is uncontrolled aggression. The grandstand for fans, in fact, is a platform for self-expression, where there are no worries and rules – only freedom. After all, if in ordinary life a person suddenly goes out into the street with a flag in his hands and starts shouting, it will not end well. But for ardent fans such behavior is quite understandable, so at the match they have a blast and express their emotions openly.

Anna Eliseeva

sports psychologist

As in any mass activity, in sports there are unrestrained fans, fans who do not miss a single match, and just fans of a particular sport, enjoying its beauty, aesthetics and inexpressible emotions. But they have something in common: the degree of commitment, self-identification with this or that team, the desire to follow it, to know each player, their history, the desire to be as close as possible to their favorite club.

And here we can outline a certain range of “activity” that defines a fan and a fan: for a fan, a sporting event, especially one involving a favorite team or athlete, is an interest, new emotions, a hobby, even if it takes up most of his or her life. For a fan, however, it is life itself!

Why do fans become addicted to sports?

Here’s what makes the hearts of avid sports fans beat faster.

Emotional release
Scientists say that those who watch sporting events experience the same hormonal release as the players themselves. In 2014, when Brazil hosted the World Cup, researchers studied the saliva of Brazilian fans before and after the final match. And here’s what they found out: the fans of the losing team had a dramatic increase in the level of the hormone cortisol in their bodies.

Free paraphernalia with the symbols of your favorite team
Sports are really addictive. What brings frenzied emotions, we do again and again. This happens because of the sudden release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that affects the feeling of pleasure, forms attachment and gives satisfaction.

In addition to dopamine, other “happy” hormones are released: endorphin, serotonin, and norepinephrine. This biochemical combo is partly what forms addiction. What to say about how much fans become attached to their favorite team when it gives them paraphernalia with its symbols. NBA basketball club “Toronto”, for example, periodically presents its fans with T-shirts and scarves. It’s a small thing, but it’s nice, and most importantly, it’s free. In this case, fans begin to identify with the team even more and feel a sense of belonging to the crowd of fans.

A sense of unity

Anna Eliseeva

sports psychologist

A sporting event attracts by the heat of passion, staying in the moment, intrigue and emotions that “color” our everyday life, inspires to their own, though not so loud victories. This feeling of unity with “their” athletes, with the whole country – remember the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, when the cry of “Goooooole!” was heard from almost every window! At that moment, almost everyone felt proud of the country and of themselves as its representative.

Exit from routine
According to Anna, a sports psychologist, sports are also interesting because “cheering” is a type of pastime that is beyond the limits of our life with its fullness and other sources of pleasure and resources. Social difficulties and excess aggression arise when the hope of a favorite team’s victory is one of the only sources of self-respect, joy, and pride.

What distinguishes a fan from a supporter?

According to sports psychologist and psychotherapist Andrei Gagaev, experts in various fields have long studied the actions of such groups and the motivation behind their behavior. There are different gradations of “fan” movements. Speaking about the culture of people accompanying their favorite athletes or clubs at competitions, it is important to distinguish “fans” from “fans”. They differ not only in “behavioral traits” but also represent different socio-cultural phenomena.

Psychotherapist Andrei Gagaev notes that “fanaticism” is an extreme degree of interest in sports, which is accompanied by intolerance towards opponents. And this is the first sign that distinguishes a “fan” from a “supporter.” Here are a few more characteristics of radicals compared to ordinary fans:

• fans need a community where they can express themselves and boost their own self-esteem;
• they prefer to watch matches live because it is more difficult for them to feel a sense of belonging to a group through a screen;
• fans are not interested in the process – they care about the result;
• they are hostile to “outsider” fans.

Why do fans show aggression?

According to sports psychologist Andrei Gagaev, when the result does not meet the expectations of fans, they show aggression.

sports psychologist

Fans so strongly personify themselves with their “favorites” that the defeat of the team is perceived as a personal insult. But the most interesting thing is that if “their” team wins, the main reaction is also aggression, but with a different vector of application: “We have proved that we are better than you (fans of the other team), so we will continue to assert ourselves through violence. This is how continuous clashes of such “organizations” arise.

At the same time, the psychotherapist notes, it doesn’t matter which team won – fans will still show aggression. But why? Experts, he says, have come to the conclusion that the real sports fans are those who either have not found themselves in anything else, or those who are extremely dissatisfied with their own lives.

Andrei Gagaev

sports psychologist

That’s why such people are absorbed by participation in such organizations, as if in sects. And the very aggression, which everyone explains in different ways, is nothing but a projection of their own dissatisfaction with their fate and way of life. And here it does not matter whether we are talking about a fan of a soccer or hockey club or an ardent supporter of any other activity.

Anna Eliseeva

sports psychologist

A sports fan by virtue of almost complete identification with “his” team perceives the defeat of the team as his own, which undermines the sense of self-esteem, pride in oneself, the desired joy, after which aggression, anger and the desire to take them out in various ways are almost inevitable. Add to this the decrease in critical thinking due to being in a crowd of similarly angry fans, the feeling of inner strength and power due to the large number of fans. And as a result – mass riots after matches.

How to fight fanaticism?

Sports psychologist Andrei Gagaev says that in European countries there are whole social institutions that deal with the problems of “fan behavior”. According to him, it is quite possible that soon we will have something similar. Meanwhile, to “tame” such spontaneous gatherings, there are only two options, says the psychotherapist.

The first way is an open confrontation and strict suppression of any manifestations that go “beyond” social behavior. Actually, this is exactly the method you see in the “dispersal of demonstrators” by the police.

The second method is more complicated and longer, but, in the psychotherapist’s opinion, more promising. This is education and instilling a culture of “cheering” for your team. It is important to explain to fans that the team itself suffers from their activities and is subject to huge fines. Teach them how to channel their energy in a “healthy direction”. One such example is the collective study of the musical accompaniment of matches. Take the same mass playing of drums and other instruments – such activities are aimed at maintaining morale and optimal condition of team members. All the more so because the coordinated work of musicians requires, as a rule, long training and turns into a good hobby.