What are fans to do when their losing team wins?
TO THE COACH’S BOX READERS: This is my weekly Sports Fan Coach column for the Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati.com. Thanks to sports editor Jason Hoffman and the Enquirer for agreeing to share this here.
By Mike Bass @SportsFanCoach1
Editor's note: This is a weekly column from former sports reporter and editor Mike Bass. Bass will be contributing to The Enquirer by offering advice for sports fans, athletes and youth sports parents and coaches through a weekly Q&A. To ask a question of Bass for potential publication, email him at mbass@mikebasscoaching.com. And get the conversation going on Twitter @SportsFanCoach1.
You are a sports fan, your team is not a winning team — to say the least — but it is your team and you won’t just abandon it. You deal with it, your way.
So what do you do when the team wins?
You celebrate it. Right? No matter what anybody else says. You waited for this. You don’t hesitate to say “we” now. We did it! You feel better about … everything. You needed this. You savor it. You show it.
Or you don’t. You won’t. No matter what anybody else says. You know this team, it has deluded you in the past, and you won’t fall for that again. You are too smart for that. You are happy, sure, but you aren’t delusional.
Which fan reaction sounds like you? Fan 1’s or Fan 2’s? It might be both, at different times.
Which fan reaction sounds like a coping skill? Fan 1’s or Fan 2’s? Again, it might be both, at different times.
Check out why, according to the researchers, using their colorful terminology.
Fan 1 might be BIRGing — basking in reflective glory. For instance, a 1976 study led by Robert B. Cialdini showed that Introductory to Psychology students at seven major universities wore more school apparel Mondays after football wins. No surprise there.
The study also showed students were more likely to call their team “we” when it won. No surprise there, either. But the study also showed how BIRGing can be a coping skill.
What if independent questioners manipulated the situation in the phone surveys? What if, first, the students bombed a campus-issues quiz given by the questioner? Would that affect their responses to the football part?
The students were duped. Half of the students were told they had fared well (5 of 6 correct), half poorly (1 of 6 correct). The affect? Those who had failed were far more likely to call their team “we” when discussing a win. They wanted to make a better impression on the questioner, protect themselves, align with a winner.
BIRGing, Cialdini’s study concluded, was “strongest when one’s public image was threatened.”
But BIRGing isn’t always the play. In their 2019 book “Sports Fans: The Psychology and Social Impact of Fandom,” Daniel L. Wann and Jeffrey D. James offer this example: Your traditionally weak college basketball team just upset your traditionally strong rival. A rematch at your rival’s home court awaits later in the season. As a fan, do you really want to strut about the upset?
Which takes us back to Fan 2, who might be COFFing — cutting off future failure. The term came from a 1995 Wann-led study of politics. The day after the 1992 U.S. presidential election, each participant received an “I voted for” badge with the appropriate ticket. You’d think Bill Clinton supporters would be BIRGing and more likely to take and to wear their badges. Not true.
George H.W. Bush backers were just as likely to take their badges and more likely to wear them. Why? The Clinton voters were unclear how he would do after beating the incumbent, the study concluded, so they refrained from associating too closely with him — COFFing.
You see it in sports, too. Fans might publicly distance from a team after a win, to protect themselves.
“Thus, COFFing helps one maintain a positive psychological state by avoiding association with a potential loser,” Wann and James wrote, “even though that team is currently experiencing success."
What about you? Do you BIRG? Do you CORF? Or some variation? There are other coping mechanisms, too.
What’s yours?
Remember to email Bass at mbass@mikebasscoaching.com or reach out to him @SportsFanCoach1 on Twitter if you want to be included next week. His website is MikeBassCoaching.com.