2023-11-21 16:34:12
What happens in the brains of ‘avid’ football fans during their favorite team’s match? A team of scientists decided to investigate their brain activity with MRI and discovered different activation patterns while watching the match, which can trigger positive and negative emotions and behaviors. The implications of these results – the authors of the study are convinced – could extend beyond sport, providing crucial information on fanaticism in general, and therefore also in other sectors, such as politics.
The research is among the protagonists of the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), scheduled for November 26 in Chicago. Objective “to shed light on the behaviors and dynamics associated with extreme rivalry, aggression and social affiliation within and between groups of fanatics”, explains the lead author Francisco Zamorano Mendieta, researcher of the Imaging Department of the Clínica Alemana de Santiago and associate professor at the Universidad San Sebastián in Santiago, Chile. Why football? Because football fans are known for team loyalty and enthusiasm, particularly in Europe and South America, the researchers note. Rivalries are deeply rooted in the history of sport, they continue, and fans can be very protective of the ‘home’ team and their favorite players, experiencing a wide range of emotions watching their team succeed or fail over the course of a game, rejoicing when he scores, getting furious at the mistakes.
“Sports ‘fandom’, the universe of fans, offers a unique opportunity to analyze how intense devotion affects neural activity in a less controversial context” compared to “other arenas” such as those of “political positions, electoral loyalty, ethnicity or spirituality”, clarifies Zamorano, and allows us to “highlight in particular the role of negative emotions, the related inhibitory control mechanisms and possible adaptive strategies”.
To obtain some information on the brain mechanisms behind fans’ behaviors, Zamorano and colleagues recruited 43 healthy male volunteers, fans of the two most popular Chilean football teams, considered super rivals of each other. Participants were divided into two groups, 22 supporters of one team and 21 of the rival. They all completed a survey to determine a ‘football fanaticism’ score and underwent psychological assessments. Everyone was finally presented with a collection of matches containing 63 goals. As the participants watched the videos, their brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging, a non-invasive imaging technique that detects changes in the brain’s blood flow.
Result: “When the favorite team wins, the reward system in the brain is activated – explains Zamorano – When they lose, the mentalization network can instead be activated, which brings the fan into an introspective state. This could mitigate part of the pain of the loss We also observed inhibition of the brain hub that connects the limbic system with the frontal cortices, hindering the mechanism that regulates cognitive control and increasing the likelihood of engaging in disruptive or violent behavior.”
According to Zamorano, the findings could shed light on the dynamics that occur in all social positions. “People – reasons the scientist – intrinsically desire social connections, whether through membership in a running club or participation in a book discussion group or engagement in virtual forums. While these social bonds often form around to shared values and interests, there may also be an element of persuasive proselytism, or ‘groupthink’ which can give rise to unreasonable beliefs and social discord.” Zamorano believes that the zeal found among some sports fans can serve as a valid example of intense emotional investment, occasional aggressive behavior, and compromised rationality. “Understanding the psychology of group identification and competition – he highlights – can shed light on decision-making processes and social dynamics, leading to a more complete understanding of how societies function.”
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