Explaining sports fans’ irrational behavior

Why some fans defend their teams against objective arguments

If you’ve ever criticized a sports team in front of one of the team’s most passionate fans, you’ve likely been accused being a “hater” and had your argument quickly dismissed. It doesn’t matter if you presented objective evidence to demonstrate how you drew your conclusion — e.g., suggesting that an NFL quarterback is bad because his statistics are worse than any other quarterback — because, to these passionate fans, there’s no such thing as a valid argument against the teams they support.

Sports fandom is an extremely emotional exercise for many fans and this often causes them to interpret objective criticism of their favorite teams as a personal attack. And this thought process and behavior isn’t exclusive to any one team. Every sports team has fans that vehemently come to its defense the second someone says something even remotely critical of it.

But why is this? Why do some sports fans irrationally defend their favorite teams against objective arguments?

Before I get into some of the psychological underpinnings of sports fan behavior, I’d first like to offer a few disclaimers:

1. I’m not criticizing sports fan behavior; I’m simply explaining it. Passionate sports fan behavior doesn’t bother me; it excites me.
2. Over the past five years of my life, I’ve studied the topic of sports fan behavior extensively, published research on it, and lectured on it, so these aren’t the ramblings of a mad man.
3. The explanation provided below is not intended to be all-encompassing. The human thought process is very complex and we’re constantly building upon our understanding of the way that humans process information and make decisions. This is just a very basic overview.

There are two primary psychological processes at play here: self-categorization and social comparison.

Self-categorization is the process in which we (meaning humans in general) form part of our self-concept (or identity) by placing ourselves into social categories with others who share common attributes. (For example, I classify myself into the following social categories: Sixers fans, avid fantasy football players, Penn State alumni, etc.)

Social comparison is the process in which we then apply favorable attributes to the social categories we identify with in order to enhance our self-esteem. And because our self-esteem is directly tied to our perception of these social categories, we resist any and all attacks that might diminish our perception of them. The more highly we identify with a category, the more true this is.

So let’s the use the Seattle Seahawks as an example. (I’ve chosen the Seahawks because the team is believed to have one of the most passionate fan bases in the NFL.) Based on what I just explained above, we could expect the following to occur:

1. A hardcore Seahawks fan identifies with the “Seahawks” social category and this forms part of his identity. (Yes, his social category is actually “Seahawks fans,” but really hardcore fans often don’t see it this way; they see themselves as part of the teams they root for.)
2. He applies favorable attributes to the Seahawks in order to enhance his own self-esteem. Because his identification with the Seahawks is a key part of his self-concept, positively evaluating the team allows him to evaluate himself more positively.
3. If someone says something negative about the Seahawks — true or not — he perceives it as a personal attack and a threat to his own sense of self worth.
4. In order to preserve his sense of self worth, the fan defends the Seahawks when he believes that others are attacking the team by a) fighting back and/or b) discrediting the attacker. Even if he knows that the other person is right in his criticism of the Seahawks, he’ll defend the team anyway because accepting that the other person is right would require him to accept that the Seahawks aren’t as great as he believes they are (and, consequently, neither is he since the Seahawks are a key part of his identity).

So, when a hardcore sports fan argues with objective evidence that someone has presented about his favorite team, he is simply using a defense mechanism to protect his own sense of self-worth. The same is true when a sports fan calls another person biased after he criticizes his favorite team; by convincing himself that the other person is biased against the team he supports, the fan is able to ignore the criticism and preserve his positive perception of the team and of himself.

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