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Supporting a losing team deemed ‘bad for health’ Report reveals link between unhealthy foods and fans of losing teams

by Tom Walker, Leisure Media | Published in Sports Management 2013 issue 2

The team’s just lost its ninth game on the trot, the manager’s got the sack and the star player wants to leave. It feels as though things can’t get any worse for long-suffering supporters who’ve invested financially and emotionally in their team. But, apparently it can – a new report suggests that fans of hopeless clubs might also be risking their physical health in the process of following their team.

“People eat better when their football team wins – and worse when it loses,” says Pierre Chandon, marketing professor for French business school INSEAD, which conducted a study on fan behaviour. “Supporters whose team lose unexpectedly, by a narrow margin or against a team of equal strength, are particularly in danger of binging on unhealthy comfort food such as burgers and pizzas.”

The claims come from a study – conducted by Chandon and INSEAD colleague Yann Cornill – into the habits of football fans in the US over a period of two years. The results – published in the August edition of Psychological Science journal – show that fans feel a threat to their identity after a defeat and use comfort eating as a coping mechanism. The effects of supporting a winning team seem to be opposite – victories boost fans’ self-control, at least when it comes to eating habits.

The INSEAD researchers asked 726 football fans to keep a diary on their food intake on Sundays, when their local team had an NFL game, as well as track their calorie intake on the following two days. In total, the research covered a total of 475 games involving 30 teams over the two-year period. On the Monday after a game, people whose team had lost ate on average 16 per cent more saturated fat and gained 10 per cent more calories from their food than they did on a normal Monday. Those whose team had won on Sunday ate nine per cent less saturated fat and consumed five per cent fewer calories than usual.

Speaking to Sports Management, Cornill said the link between disappointed fans and unhealthy foods was a new one. “Although prior studies had shown that sport outcomes influence reckless driving, heart attacks, and even domestic violence, no one had examined how they influence eating. The data allowed us to look at people living in cities without an NFL team or with a team that didn’t play on that particular day, providing us with two control samples.”

Cornill added that the status of sport in the US makes it an ideal location in which to conduct studies. “Sport is a very important part of American life and there’s no bigger sport than football,” he says. “More than 60 per cent of all Americans class themselves as football fans. On the day of a big match, more than half the population of a city will sit down to watch the “home town” team’s game on the TV. This meant that the sample included both male and female fans and also that it covered a wide age range.

The researchers also wanted to see whether people outside the US would react similarly to experiencing a disappointing sporting result. The INSEAD team asked a group of French people to write about a time when their favorite team lost or won and then choose something to eat. In a task conducted under laboratory conditions the people who had been asked to write about their team losing opted to eat chips and sugary sweets – and ignored the healthier choice of grapes and tomatoes. The group who wrote about winning preferred the healthier options on offer. For Cornill, this was proof that the findings from the US study are applicable in other countries – especially in developed nations in which sport plays an important part in people’s lives.

“Sport affects people’s lives all around the world and there’s still so much more we can study around people’s behaviour when it comes to food,” Cornill said. “While the results of the studies in the US and Europe mirror each other, it would be interesting to do a similar survey in a country like India and see how cricket fans react to defeats and wins.”

So what do these findings mean for clubs – especially those who experience varied success? What can – or should – they do to help suffering fans to avoid further misery by piling on the pounds?

Cornill says clubs could form partnership with caterers and restaurants who are always eager to find a receptive market for their products. “While I’d be hesitant to promote unhealthy eating, clubs might want to form ties with food companies,” he said. The question is, should they exploit fans’ need for comfort food or try to combat this instinct?

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