Tony ([info]quikchange) wrote,
@ 2007-11-06 09:05:00
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Current mood: surprised
Current music:Heart Cooks Brain - Modest Mouse
Entry tags:politics, psychology, sociology

Professional sports as opiate of the masses
While watching a baseball game a few weeks ago, I wondered why people have affiliations with sports teams. What makes them care so much about the fortunes of an organization from which they receive no tangible benefit? More surprisingly, why is it that so many people care more about the progress of the sports teams they follow than they do about things that directly affect them in significant ways, like local and national politics or environmental dangers to their health and well-being? I have a friend who eschews the nightly news in favour of ESPN. Newspapers have long known that they could finance the rest of the paper by selling the sports section. Why is this?


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[info]waterloser
2007-11-06 07:24 pm UTC (link)

I think the point most people miss is that Sports are big because of gambling.

The closer I follow team X, the more I'll know about team X, the better I can bet when team X is playing, the more money I can make. There is real tangible monetary results.

With politics all you are betting on is your life and well being...

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[info]quikchange
2007-11-06 07:27 pm UTC (link)
Does that mean that people would take a more active interest in politics if we had bookies involved?

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[info]thewizard
2007-11-06 07:39 pm UTC (link)
There's apparently a website for just that. Let me see if I can find it after work...

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[info]morethanreal
2007-11-08 08:52 am UTC (link)
InTrade and News Futures, among others. They're probably as good as polls if not better.

There're a couple reasons why people are more interested in spectator sports than current affairs. Entertainment, local identity, escapism (part of entertainment I guess), herd mentality, etc..

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[info]tangbu
2007-11-06 09:55 pm UTC (link)
Exactly this topic came up at work many years ago. One guy's hypothesis was that "we're all losers", so we compensate by trying to associate ourselves with a winning sports team. This doesn't explain the Maple Leafs.

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jfpoole
2007-11-09 11:21 pm UTC (link)
I've seen the same behavior (albeit not on the same scale with companies) -- look at the loyal fan base Apple has, for example.

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[info]quikchange
2007-11-09 11:33 pm UTC (link)
To some degree, that behaviour on the part of Macheads does reflect self-interest, because the network effect means that more marketshare for the Mac improves the user-experience for Mac users (by giving them more choices of peripherals, 3rd-party software, etc.), although I'll hand you that this does not entirely account for it.

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