Ed:
You might want to look into Cialdini's work on basking in reflected glory. As to why sports fans/fanatics tend to be "homers" (cheering for their hometown team), I would imagine that increased exposure (available newspapers, radio and TV news/sports reports, and availability of the home team's games on TV) would lead to increased liking. There is no doubt some normative social influence going on, as individuals interact with other (sometimes like-minded) individuals and attempt to "fit in" by going along with their favorite team. Stan Schachter's work in the 1950's tell us that deviates (those who don't go along with the majority opinion) become shunned socially. I'm sure there is a literature out there on the social psychology of home-team favoritism. This is a topic that has interested me casually for many years, although I haven't pursued it academically/empirically. Is anyone out there interested in collaborative research in this area? -Max Gwynn On Tue, 15 Jan 2002, Pollak, Edward wrote: > Can someone please explain to me why/how presumably intelligent people > become so obsessed with the activities of a professional sports team with > whom their only connection is that the team plays 1/2 of its games in a city > close to where you live or have lived. I just don't get it. And don't tell > me about how much you appreciate the athletic ballet, etc. because the fact > of the matter is you are happy when your team wins and miserable when they > lose, regardless of how ugly was the quality of the play. Help me out here. > > Ed > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. > Graduate Coordinator, Holocaust and Genocide Studies > Department of Psychology, > West Chester Univ. of Pennsylvania > Office: 610-436-3151; Home: 610-363-1939; Fax: 610-436-2846 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and > herpetoculturist ( http://www.adcham.com) > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Shameless self promotion: The Mill Creek Bluegrass Band performs every > Tuesday night at Dugal's Inn, Mortonville, 8 miles west of West Chester, PA. > Call 610- 486-0953 for directions. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Maxwell Gwynn, PhD [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Psychology (519) 884-0710 ext 3854 Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5 Canada --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
