If you're still feeling a little sad, mad, or deflated today because the Steelers lost a game they were supposed to have won, there's a reason.
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| | And how are you feeling? Click here to describe your emotional state following the Steelers' Sunday loss in the AFC championship game. | | |
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It's called loser letdown and it can be devastating to fans who closely identify with the team they support, said Daniel L. Wann, associate professor of psychology at Murray State University in Kentucky.
"The team can literally become an extension of who the fan is," said Wann, who studies the behavior of sports fans. "When the Steelers lose, they lose. This can be fairly intense and affect a fan's self-esteem.
"It will pass, but it doesn't mean it is any less depressing to them right now. The intensity of the sadness can be fairly great."
Behavioral research has shown that fans identify with their sports teams to such a degree that they claim the team's successes and losses as their own. This can play on their moods, carrying over into how they feel about themselves.
And that can be a good thing.
Studies have shown that people who identify with sports teams have improved psychological health because they are connected with other people, said Edward Hirt, a psychology professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.
"In a social psychological sense, people need to be connected and involved," he said. "Some people get that from their families, others from religious or social groups and for a lot of people, it's from sports teams."
Being a sports fan can be a huge part of who a person is, and after investing time and energy following a team, when a team is expected to win and doesn't, the letdown is fairly intense.
"We found in our research that it affects their moods and how well they feel they will perform in everyday activities."
In one study, Hirt found that fans expressed greater confidence in their ability to perform a number of mental and physical tasks after their team won, while their self-assurance disappeared after a loss. Their actual performance wasn't affected, he said.
Robert Cialdini, psychology professor at Arizona State University, is a research pioneer in how sports fans respond to their team's losses and successes.
A study he conducted in the 1970s with college students, including some at the University of Pittsburgh, found that fans were more likely to wear sweatshirts, hats and T-shirts with their team logo the day after a win than after a defeat.
Recent research shows that fans tend to take credit for a team's success by saying "we" won, and to distance themselves from a team's defeat by saying, "they" lost.
"My research shows, and other work has confirmed, that people treat these successes and failures of their affiliated sports teams as personal successes and failures, so they feel great elation when the team wins and great distress when the team loses," Cialdini said.
This is particularly true in cities that don't have much else to offer, or in places such as Pittsburgh and Milwaukee that have inferiority complexes, he said.
"Pittsburgh is a better city than most people realize, and that's frustrating for people who live there," he said. "So when something comes along that can change the reputation, but instead validates it, that can be especially distressing."
Fans in those cities tend to "go crazy," when their teams win, which is not the case so much in places like San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles, which have well-established and positive images, he said.
"The big question is perspective," Hirt said. "Your identity as a Steeler fan is just one component of who you are. If we wrap too much of ourselves in that, and keep a pessimistic outlook after a loss, it sabotages our ability to do other things well in our lives."
Wann agrees. "The drawback is when the team loses," he said "It's important that they realize, you take the bad with the good and not place such an importance on winning."
Perspective is important, agreed Paul Friday, a psychologist at UPMC Shadyside. Given time, even the most dedicated fan should be able to separate himself from his team and conclude that "this is football, not the end of the world."
More than 90 percent of disappointed fans will be over it within 72 hours, he said.
Dedicated fans have several built-in defense mechanisms that help them deal with losses, Wann said. There's the endless "what if?" speculation. Or, they blame it on the coach or bad officiating.
"And, the beauty of sports is -- there is always next season."
