You’ve gotta love ’em
Science shows March Madness fans just can’t resist an underdog
If you got that warm-’n-fuzzy feeling the weekend Lehigh beat Duke or the year N.C. State socked Phi Slama Jama or the time Butler almost did it, you are not alone.
The science shows, again and again, that we can’t resist pulling for the teams called the Anteaters (that’s UC Irvine). Or for the UABs of the world to upend the UCLAs. For the time-tested crowd pleaser, the No. 12 seed, and for anyone else with the label ’underdog’ when March Madness rolls around.
About a dozen studies over the past 25 years have shown, in one way or another, that we, as sports fans, are inexorably drawn to the team with the odds stacked against it.
“It’s the prominent narrative in sports,” said Nadav Goldschmied of University of San Diego, who collaborated on one of the studies.
This penchant runs counter to almost everything else we’re wired to think. Scientific studies show people want to be associated with success and that our self-esteem grows when we’re part of the “in” crowd. Walk one well-dressed job candidate through the door, then follow him up with a schlub, and the studies show the majority of us favour the person who appears more attractive, almost regardless of their credentials.
But take that same dynamic into a sporting contest, where it’s a scraggly No. 14 seed against a polished No. 3, and the perceptions change.
One of Goldschmied’s studies had people watch a basketball game between two relatively unknown European teams after reading different write-ups about the rivalry. One group was led to believe Team A had won the last 15 meetings; the other was led to believe Team B had won all those games. Who they rooted for tilted based on who they considered the underdog.
Furthermore, in both cases, the team perceived as the underdog was viewed as the team giving more effort with less ability.
“That’s just the story we tell ourselves,” Goldschmied said. “We don’t have to look too deep to figure it out.”
The majority of us will fill out brackets — no point spreads involved — based on feel and feeling. Many will pay scant attention to the fact that double-digit seeds have won a mere 41 of 172 games during the opening week — less than 24 per cent — over the past five years. Seems like more, doesn’t it? Well, we’re wired to remember it that way.
Quick quiz: Who won the fight at the end of the first “Rocky” movie? Answer: Apollo Creed. But in a study Goldschmied is currently conducting, he said a majority of those asked answered “Rocky.”
“We will bend our memory,” Goldschmied said. “We have forced our memory to change just to fit the underdog story. It’s because of the underdog mode in all of us.”