Date: 8/09/2013 18:07:59
From: monkey skipper
ID: 389620
Subject: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

Why are people affected by their sporting teams not being successful each game they play?

This question could easily be extended to other sports and events, for example the recent outcomes for swimmers in the most recent games came under fire by some for not bringing home the anticipated medal count.

Why is this external sense of achievement important to humans seemingly?

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Date: 8/09/2013 18:10:22
From: ms spock
ID: 389625
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

Perhaps it is predicated on a sense of belonging and identification with the team. So the team, in a sense becomes an extension of the person, thus they are effected by the team’s ups and downs.

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Date: 8/09/2013 18:10:24
From: Bubblecar
ID: 389626
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

>Why are people affected by their sporting teams not being successful each game they play?

I’m not, but I don’t have any sporting teams.

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Date: 8/09/2013 18:14:20
From: party_pants
ID: 389632
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

monkey skipper said:

Why are people affected by their sporting teams not being successful each game they play?

This question could easily be extended to other sports and events, for example the recent outcomes for swimmers in the most recent games came under fire by some for not bringing home the anticipated medal count.

Why is this external sense of achievement important to humans seemingly?

As far as the swimmers go, they are largely funded by the taxpayer, with contributions from large corporate sponsors. Success requires funding so athletes can get the best training, but funding requires success to perpetuate it. If success dries up then people will start to question why all this money is being spent on it.

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Date: 8/09/2013 18:15:34
From: monkey skipper
ID: 389635
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

Bubblecar said:


>Why are people affected by their sporting teams not being successful each game they play?

I’m not, but I don’t have any sporting teams.

Some people may have personal ambitions of being the best though and therefore the question still arises as to why the importance exists?

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Date: 8/09/2013 18:15:55
From: CrazyNeutrino
ID: 389636
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

monkey skipper said:

Why are people affected by their sporting teams not being successful each game they play?

This question could easily be extended to other sports and events, for example the recent outcomes for swimmers in the most recent games came under fire by some for not bringing home the anticipated medal count.

Why is this external sense of achievement important to humans seemingly?

emotions!

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Date: 8/09/2013 18:19:22
From: Riff-in-Thyme
ID: 389644
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

monkey skipper said:

Why are people affected by their sporting teams not being successful each game they play?

This question could easily be extended to other sports and events, for example the recent outcomes for swimmers in the most recent games came under fire by some for not bringing home the anticipated medal count.

Why is this external sense of achievement important to humans seemingly?

On the personal level idk, but as far as large gatherings go, any i have been to, whether a sport event or music event or a religious gathering develops it’s own energy that is difficult not to get swept up in. Maybe we have herding genes in there somewhere.

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Date: 8/09/2013 18:31:38
From: monkey skipper
ID: 389665
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

Evolutionary advantage?

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Date: 8/09/2013 19:23:38
From: wookiemeister
ID: 389689
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

Why is this external sense of achievement important to humans seemingly?

probably because they’re idiots with no life or real interests outside of sports, playing cards and killing things.

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Date: 8/09/2013 19:51:41
From: Skeptic Pete
ID: 389703
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

Bubblecar said:


>Why are people affected by their sporting teams not being successful each game they play?

I’m not, but I don’t have any sporting teams.

+1

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Date: 8/09/2013 20:42:00
From: monkey skipper
ID: 389778
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

wookiemeister said:


Why is this external sense of achievement important to humans seemingly?

probably because they’re idiots with no life or real interests outside of sports, playing cards and killing things.

No hobbies then wookie?

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Date: 8/09/2013 20:43:27
From: wookiemeister
ID: 389780
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

monkey skipper said:


wookiemeister said:

Why is this external sense of achievement important to humans seemingly?

probably because they’re idiots with no life or real interests outside of sports, playing cards and killing things.

No hobbies then wookie?


not really, the ones I have are of no consequence, I lead a fairly boring life really

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Date: 9/09/2013 09:29:24
From: Arts
ID: 390097
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

interesting article about a San Francisco based journo who wrote a book on the subject The Secret Lives of Sports Fans,

Imagine an avid sports fan in the throes of a nail-biter. With seconds left in the tight game, the jersey-wearing fan jumps up from the couch, muscles tensed, and barks some final orders to the athletes. A desperate “Run the ball!” or “Shoot the three!”

But, what is going on inside the fervent fan’s body? Blood pressure rises, no doubt. What else? What is happening in the brain, and how are hormone levels changing?

In his new book, The Secret Lives of Sports Fans, San Francisco-based journalist Eric Simons discusses the biology and psychology of sports fandom. The zealous admirer of hockey and football tries to get to the bottom of a question he and other sports fans often wonder: Why am I so hooked?

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ideas-innovations/The-Science-of-Being-a-Sports-Fan-200057481.html#ixzz2eLYpP100
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

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Date: 9/09/2013 11:16:10
From: transition
ID: 390125
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

>Why is this external sense of achievement important to humans seemingly?”

TV doesn’t tell you, but most people don’t participate in regular organized sport, and many, possibly even most are not that interested in organized sport.

Way back in the EoEA being good at something, some specialty, got you some social status and a root, DNA recombination possibilities, helped with raising offspring to breeding age too, and as it went rather than dragging another into the cave or whatever they turned up obliging-like. Not unlike those girls that turn up to parties involving their favourite sports stars.

As for competitiveness, humans have enough of that without ideological amplification.

Much as the “team” and ‘us’, and ‘we’ etc are apparently important, much of the work of social life involves limiting the power of groups over individuals, though the ideological apparatus is not terribly forthright regarding that, more it’s like a demanding toddler with ADD, with the added dimension of passing itself off as something akin to a force of nature.

Probably look to phylogeny and selection pressures of groups past, way back, look to what shaped the social instincts and social receptiveness. You’ll maybe find much of the modern apparent convergence of neural activity is largely the product of modern culture, since taken to an industrial scale.

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Date: 9/09/2013 11:20:33
From: OCDC
ID: 390126
Subject: re: Psychology of social connection with the team concept

How annoying, my immunol course is the last weekend of the school holidays. Guess I won’t be doing too much sight-seeing.

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