MLB: Psychologists Conclude That Red Sox Fans Want Their Team to Lose

Following the 19-8 Boston Red Sox defeat to the New York Yankees in the third game of the 2004 playoffs, the psychologists went to work.

They wondered if the Boston Red Sox fans gained more by supporting a loser than Yankees fans gained by rooting for an almost perennial winner.

Many assumed that the Red Sox would lose one more game and go home. Of course, no one, not even learned psychologists, can predict what will happen in a playoff series.

Those who study the mind believe that when a fan's team wins, the pleasure of victory can affect the brain's deepest emotional centers. Rooting for a winner can increase social confidence and self image, but fans who support the Red Sox, a team whose last World Championship had been in 1918, must find other compensations.

Christopher Peterson, a University of Michigan psychologist, doesn't think that Red Sox fans were long-suffering because, he states, at some level, they enjoy rooting for a loser.

"Long-suffering is not quite the right phrase, because at some level, I think, we do enjoy it."

Does any baseball fan believe such nonsense? Hey, Red Sox fans, it's fine that the Red Sox will lose the playoffs to the Yankees. At some level, you'll really enjoy it.

The consensus of such "experts" is that Red Sox fans really do want their team to win, but years of futility have made loyalty, following the team's fortunes and being forced to develop emotional resiliency transcend celebrating victories.

Dr. Christian End, a psychologist at Xavier University performed a study involving 87 college students. The good professor discovered that those who support losing teams are viewed more positively by their peers than fans of winning teams.

Right Dr. End. Yankees fans view Red Sox fans more positively because they lose. Actually, there is some truth to that despite the fact that Yankees and Red Sox fans have little use for each other.

When the Yankees beat the Red Sox, Yankees fans feel less negative about Red Sox fans. When the Red Sox beat the Yankees, their fans feel less negative about the Yankees. After all, say the Red Sox fans, "We beat the evil empire."

Dr. End concludes that losers develop greater character than winners do.

"You've creatively changed the dimensions of comparison to include not just the outcome, the score, but measures of character." People who root for losers learn to explain and adjust to losing.

Winners can never accept losing. They cannot adjust to losing. They don't want to adjust to losing.

There is nothing, repeat, nothing worse than losing. It is horrible to experience the agony of defeat. Red Sox fans will never forget 1978 or 1986, just as Yankees fans will never forget 1960 or 2001.

As the great Vince Lombardi said, "Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser."

Some behavioral "experts" claim that fans of losing teams want them to lose because they fear that finally experiencing a World Championship will fall short of their expectations.

Tell me, Red Sox fans, did the delirium, ebullience and elation you felt when the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the playoffs after being down three games to none and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series fall short of your expectations?

Did you care less about beating the Colorado Rockies in 2007 because the Red Sox had been World Champions as recently as 2004?

Boston Red Sox fans hate to lose. It is a fallacy to believe otherwise. Psychologists and other "experts" attempt to intellectualize how fans feel about their team, especially when the team loses.

Take all the studies, all the hypothesizing, all the theorizing and simply go to the ballpark. Ask any Red Sox fan or any Yankees fan how they feel when their team loses. It's that simple.

Reference:

Carey, B. (2004, Oct 17). Maybe Red Sox Fans Enjoy their Pain. New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. WK12. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/92796235?accountid=46260