WEBVTT - Episode 1: What’s Wrong with Eric? 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Pushkin. 0:00:27.316 --> 0:00:28.876 You know, I went to a game with my dad 0:00:28.916 --> 0:00:31.476 and my brother and it was miserable and awful, and 0:00:31.476 --> 0:00:33.116 we're all frustrated and mad. 0:00:35.836 --> 0:00:40.876 Eric Simon's high school math teacher in northern California. Typical 0:00:40.916 --> 0:00:43.436 sports fan in some ways. He fell in love with 0:00:43.436 --> 0:00:46.436 his favorite teams as a little kid after his dad 0:00:46.476 --> 0:00:49.236 took him to some games. Now he's all grown up 0:00:49.476 --> 0:00:50.676 but still going to games. 0:00:51.196 --> 0:00:53.916 I'm riding home. I'm taking bart back across from Berkeley 0:00:54.076 --> 0:00:57.036 into the city on a Saturday night, and I'm sitting 0:00:57.076 --> 0:00:59.356 there and I have like a headache from wearing a 0:00:59.476 --> 0:01:02.076 dumb hat that is like constricted my head for too long, 0:01:02.156 --> 0:01:04.356 and I've been standing in the sun, and i had 0:01:04.396 --> 0:01:06.516 like a miserable dinner, and there's all these people around 0:01:06.556 --> 0:01:10.196 me riding bart in for like a nice night. They're 0:01:10.276 --> 0:01:13.356 dressed up, they're going to bars, they're going to nice restaurants. 0:01:14.836 --> 0:01:17.556 But in one way, Eric was not typical. He was 0:01:17.596 --> 0:01:20.276 starting to ask questions that most sports fans never do. 0:01:20.996 --> 0:01:22.516 And I'm just looking at myself and I'm crammed in 0:01:22.556 --> 0:01:24.716 the corner, just feeling like shit, like what the fuck 0:01:24.796 --> 0:01:26.236 is wrong with me? Sorry, I don't know if I 0:01:26.236 --> 0:01:28.876 can swim as you get Oh, we do, yes, What 0:01:29.356 --> 0:01:32.316 is wrong with me? Why am I sitting here in 0:01:32.396 --> 0:01:35.676 the corner of a bart train, sweat stained and smelling. 0:01:36.276 --> 0:01:39.276 I'm like eight thirty on a Saturday night, when everybody 0:01:39.276 --> 0:01:42.956 else is leading such a pleasant, normal life around me, 0:01:44.036 --> 0:01:46.916 And I think I just felt that, like, like, why 0:01:46.956 --> 0:01:49.076 do all of us do this so much? Why do 0:01:49.116 --> 0:01:50.196 we do this to ourselves? 0:01:50.996 --> 0:01:54.996 He was on that train around twenty ten. Eric teaches math, 0:01:55.396 --> 0:01:59.236 but Eric also writes the thought crossed his mind. Maybe 0:01:59.276 --> 0:02:02.276 I should write about this. Maybe I should figure out 0:02:02.276 --> 0:02:04.516 what's wrong with me, because someone needs to. 0:02:05.316 --> 0:02:06.836 I was very naive at this point. I was a 0:02:06.836 --> 0:02:09.116 science writer. I wrote mostly about scientists, and I thought, 0:02:09.476 --> 0:02:11.636 you know, I'll go find a scientist, and a scientist 0:02:11.636 --> 0:02:14.236 will answer it for me, because that's sort of what 0:02:14.276 --> 0:02:17.076 I did. I'd have a question and I'd find an expert, 0:02:17.076 --> 0:02:19.556 and the expert would say, oh, yeah, this. I honestly 0:02:19.636 --> 0:02:22.556 sort of thought, you know, there's some guys studies sports 0:02:22.596 --> 0:02:25.116 fans at Harvard and they'll say, yeah, there's this little 0:02:25.156 --> 0:02:27.636 part of your brain there, and if you nuke that sucker, 0:02:27.796 --> 0:02:29.276 you'd be healthy again. 0:02:30.476 --> 0:02:41.596 If only it were that easy. I'm Michael Lewis, and 0:02:41.636 --> 0:02:45.396 this is against the rules. Each season we've taken a 0:02:45.476 --> 0:02:47.876 character in American life who also happens to be a 0:02:47.956 --> 0:02:53.556 character in American sports. The referee, the coach, the expert. 0:02:54.476 --> 0:02:58.356 These characters have changed, their roles, have evolved in ways 0:02:58.356 --> 0:03:00.596 that tell us not just about sports, but about the 0:03:00.596 --> 0:03:04.036 world we live in. This season, the character will be 0:03:04.116 --> 0:03:14.636 exploring is the fan. Being a fan is less a 0:03:14.716 --> 0:03:17.996 role than an emotional state. And that emotional state hasn't 0:03:18.036 --> 0:03:21.156 changed much since the fifth century BC, when Greeks hollered 0:03:21.196 --> 0:03:24.716 at other Greeks racing chariots. What's changing is how that 0:03:24.796 --> 0:03:28.836 emotional state can be exploited. That's a huge deal because 0:03:28.836 --> 0:03:32.516 it's shaping our society in all sorts of ways. This 0:03:32.676 --> 0:03:34.556 fact has been staring me in the face for the 0:03:34.596 --> 0:03:37.356 longest time. Now, I'm thinking right now, when I was 0:03:37.396 --> 0:03:40.796 writing Moneyball, that book was about a baseball team with 0:03:40.916 --> 0:03:43.796 no money, the Oakland A's figuring out that the other 0:03:43.876 --> 0:03:48.396 baseball teams were behaving irrationally and exploiting that they sparked 0:03:48.396 --> 0:03:52.116 a revolution not just in sports, but in business, in politics, 0:03:52.116 --> 0:03:55.356 and all sorts of other things. Even now, you can't 0:03:55.356 --> 0:04:00.996 help but wonder why Oakland. Why did this world changing 0:04:00.996 --> 0:04:04.396 event occur inside this baseball team with not too many 0:04:04.436 --> 0:04:08.636 fans and no money. So few fans and so little 0:04:08.636 --> 0:04:11.516 money that the Oakland A's are as I speak, packing 0:04:11.596 --> 0:04:14.116 up their bags and on their way to Las Vegas 0:04:14.596 --> 0:04:17.876 in search of more fans and more money. Back when 0:04:17.876 --> 0:04:20.796 the Oakland A's were inventing moneyball, their lack of resources 0:04:20.956 --> 0:04:24.316 was obviously important. It forced the A's management to think 0:04:24.396 --> 0:04:27.796 differently to compete with the teams with more money. But 0:04:27.956 --> 0:04:33.956 another explanation was the Oakland fan or his absence. Back 0:04:33.956 --> 0:04:36.516 when I was writing the book, the Oakland management said 0:04:36.516 --> 0:04:40.316 this thing over and over. We are so lucky. We 0:04:40.356 --> 0:04:42.756 don't have a big, noisy fan base paying much attention 0:04:42.796 --> 0:04:45.956 to what we do. The Oakland's front office didn't have 0:04:46.036 --> 0:04:48.276 this loud mob hollering at them to do the same 0:04:48.356 --> 0:04:52.036 stupid stuff that the other baseball people were doing. They 0:04:52.036 --> 0:04:54.356 weren't being egged on by their fans and by their 0:04:54.356 --> 0:04:56.956 local media in the same way that say, the Yankees 0:04:57.036 --> 0:04:59.836 or the Red Sox were a lot of people who 0:04:59.876 --> 0:05:02.996 manage baseball teams were effectively playing craps to impress the 0:05:02.996 --> 0:05:06.916 crowd around the table. The Oakland management was off quietly 0:05:06.956 --> 0:05:10.796 counting cards at the blackjack table. They could ignore fan 0:05:10.876 --> 0:05:15.236 emotion and rid themselves of fan biases, and that was 0:05:15.396 --> 0:05:20.396 just a huge tactical advantage. A weird sort of combat 0:05:20.436 --> 0:05:24.556 line runs through the modern economy. That's what this entire 0:05:24.676 --> 0:05:28.156 season is really about, the gap between the people who 0:05:28.196 --> 0:05:30.556 count cards and the people who don't even realize the 0:05:30.596 --> 0:05:33.436 cards can be counted. Either you're one of these smart 0:05:33.436 --> 0:05:36.596 people able to measure and analyze and calculate probabilities and 0:05:36.676 --> 0:05:40.156 place your bets as rationally as possible, or you are 0:05:40.236 --> 0:05:40.876 their prey. 0:05:41.796 --> 0:05:45.396 A fan, so you know, just like Google, you know, 0:05:45.636 --> 0:05:47.276 sports fan researchers. 0:05:47.476 --> 0:05:47.756 Yep. 0:05:48.156 --> 0:05:51.716 And to be honest, not that much comes up. And 0:05:51.756 --> 0:05:53.156 it's like, well, why is that? 0:05:54.196 --> 0:05:56.236 I definitely have a weak spot for writers who come 0:05:56.276 --> 0:05:59.436 along and point out something important that's just been sitting 0:05:59.436 --> 0:06:04.876 there forever unnoticed. Fifteen years ago, Eric Simons did just that. 0:06:05.636 --> 0:06:10.276 He noticed how weirdly he behaved as a fan, his irrationality, 0:06:11.116 --> 0:06:14.916 how unhappy it could make him. He asked, what's the 0:06:14.956 --> 0:06:15.556 matter with me? 0:06:17.036 --> 0:06:19.276 This is a thing that is you know, billions of 0:06:19.316 --> 0:06:23.236 dollars and everyone does it, and it's true across culture 0:06:23.356 --> 0:06:26.556 is like, why isn't there this, you know, the Institute 0:06:26.556 --> 0:06:30.116 for the Study of Sports Fans at every university on 0:06:30.156 --> 0:06:33.716 the planet, and so you know, I started started there. 0:06:32.996 --> 0:06:36.276 They're all too busy going to the football games, right, 0:06:37.716 --> 0:06:39.316 That's why there's a lot. 0:06:39.156 --> 0:06:39.916 Of truth to that. 0:06:44.156 --> 0:06:47.476 Eric Simon set out to find someone, anyone who could 0:06:47.476 --> 0:06:50.076 help him to explain the weird things his mind was doing, 0:06:51.156 --> 0:06:53.956 and back then, if you did that, you eventually ended 0:06:54.036 --> 0:06:57.716 up meeting Dan Juan. I can't figure out, for dramatic purposes, 0:06:57.876 --> 0:07:00.276 whether it's better to call you Professor Waller Dan. 0:07:00.716 --> 0:07:03.356 Yeah, I I will leave that up to you. 0:07:03.716 --> 0:07:05.916 The only thing I care about is what my grand 0:07:05.956 --> 0:07:08.836 shaw calls me Dan Dan. Beyond that, I really don't 0:07:08.876 --> 0:07:09.436 really there. 0:07:10.276 --> 0:07:13.396 Danje is a psychology professor at Murray State University in 0:07:13.436 --> 0:07:16.876 Western Kentucky. Professor one's kind of great because it's the 0:07:17.156 --> 0:07:19.636 professor of something that nobody else is a professor of. 0:07:19.956 --> 0:07:24.236 Sor Dan or his students have written some huge number 0:07:24.236 --> 0:07:28.476 of serious academic articles with titles like is there really 0:07:28.476 --> 0:07:31.996 no Crying in Baseball? Examining the acceptance of crying in sport? 0:07:32.636 --> 0:07:36.156 And feeling suck and so does your team, exploring the 0:07:36.196 --> 0:07:40.956 link between restrictive emotionality and dysfunctional fandom. But for a 0:07:41.036 --> 0:07:43.956 long time, as far as Dan knew, he was the 0:07:43.996 --> 0:07:52.796 world's only full time sports fan researcher. He invented the 0:07:52.796 --> 0:07:56.676 field by accident. As a graduate student back in nineteen 0:07:56.756 --> 0:08:00.076 eighty seven. On the first day of class, his professor 0:08:00.076 --> 0:08:04.156 gave him a homework assignment find some testable hypothesis about 0:08:04.196 --> 0:08:08.596 human behavior. He'd gone home and watched Sports Center instead. 0:08:09.156 --> 0:08:11.716 There were only two students in Dan's class, and when 0:08:11.716 --> 0:08:14.956 it was time to present, the professor called on Dan. First. 0:08:16.156 --> 0:08:20.836 I had one hundred percent forgotten about the assignment. I 0:08:20.916 --> 0:08:23.916 am now just making cramp up as I go along, 0:08:24.476 --> 0:08:27.116 and I said, well, I think there had been this 0:08:27.236 --> 0:08:29.476 story on the sports and about a soccer rise. Well, 0:08:29.516 --> 0:08:32.836 I think that if an individual is really highly identified 0:08:33.036 --> 0:08:36.236 psychologic connected to their sports team, they're probably more likely 0:08:36.476 --> 0:08:38.156 to get violent when they're watching the team. 0:08:38.356 --> 0:08:39.396 If things don't work. 0:08:39.236 --> 0:08:43.476 Out on the spot, Dan cooks up his testable hypothesis. 0:08:44.076 --> 0:08:46.796 He believes the sports fans most likely to start fights 0:08:46.796 --> 0:08:49.956 after a loss are the sports fans most devoted to 0:08:49.996 --> 0:08:53.956 that team. This hypothesis will be a breeze to test. 0:08:53.996 --> 0:08:57.236 He thinks, surely someone in the world of psychology has 0:08:57.236 --> 0:08:58.196 already looked into it. 0:08:58.996 --> 0:08:59.476 When you go. 0:08:59.516 --> 0:09:03.716 Back and you look back at people who've studied fans, 0:09:04.236 --> 0:09:08.036 what do you find a random study or two on 0:09:08.556 --> 0:09:12.636 fan viol And if you ever found anybody who wrote 0:09:12.676 --> 0:09:16.276 like an opinion or an essay about sport fandom, they 0:09:16.316 --> 0:09:17.396 all just slammed it. 0:09:17.476 --> 0:09:20.516 Everybody loves sport except for the you know, the eggheads 0:09:20.516 --> 0:09:22.156 are actually studying sport. 0:09:22.556 --> 0:09:26.316 So Dan designs his own study. He discovers, to his surprise, 0:09:26.516 --> 0:09:29.676 that there's little correlation between fans devotion to their teams 0:09:30.236 --> 0:09:33.236 and their willingness to punch people. He starts to look 0:09:33.276 --> 0:09:35.476 further into the lives of dedicated fans. 0:09:36.516 --> 0:09:39.436 Sports fans are more politically active than non sports fans. 0:09:39.476 --> 0:09:41.916 They're more likely to go museums and non sports fans. 0:09:41.956 --> 0:09:45.196 They're more likely to play sports, they're more likely to 0:09:45.236 --> 0:09:47.356 go to the theater, They're more likely to donate. 0:09:47.556 --> 0:09:50.236 They're also more likely to have higher GPAs. 0:09:50.956 --> 0:09:51.756 So they're not lazy. 0:09:51.876 --> 0:09:52.356 No, they're not. 0:09:52.396 --> 0:09:55.756 Now again, okay, some are right, I mean, they gotta 0:09:55.796 --> 0:09:57.996 always admit right that they're out there. 0:09:57.996 --> 0:10:01.756 But no, the vast majority are are quite involved. 0:10:02.476 --> 0:10:02.636 Now. 0:10:02.716 --> 0:10:06.316 Obviously all fans aren't the same. There are nuances here, 0:10:06.756 --> 0:10:09.996 and Dan one began to explore them. What began with 0:10:10.076 --> 0:10:14.636 a forgotten homework assignment became a stream of published papers, the. 0:10:14.756 --> 0:10:20.196 Reviews, and the response I got from academics and journals, 0:10:20.236 --> 0:10:23.076 and that the media was so positive that I just 0:10:23.556 --> 0:10:25.996 basically scuttled everything else and decided to just study this. 0:10:25.956 --> 0:10:26.836 For thirty five years. 0:10:27.716 --> 0:10:29.956 It's kind of odd if you think about it. Basically 0:10:29.996 --> 0:10:33.076 no one else wanted to study sports fans, but lots 0:10:33.076 --> 0:10:36.516 of people, even people who ran serious academic journals, were 0:10:36.556 --> 0:10:37.516 curious about them. 0:10:38.076 --> 0:10:41.836 It's this social category where the editors and their reviewers 0:10:42.076 --> 0:10:44.876 there's a decent chance, no guarantee, there's a decent chance 0:10:44.876 --> 0:10:48.036 that they're sports fans, and they're like, yeah, why in 0:10:48.076 --> 0:10:49.396 the world am I doing this. 0:10:50.436 --> 0:10:53.236 It's that same question again, and no one's answering it. 0:10:53.996 --> 0:10:57.356 People are so curious as to why it is such 0:10:57.396 --> 0:11:00.276 a large chunk of the population will dedicate such time 0:11:00.356 --> 0:11:04.996 and money and love and desire and emotion and sadness 0:11:05.036 --> 0:11:09.556 and whatever you know to this voluntary activity. Right, no 0:11:09.596 --> 0:11:11.596 one's like twisting their arm and making them go do 0:11:11.676 --> 0:11:16.196 this and they have very very little, if any, controlled 0:11:16.196 --> 0:11:17.036 over the outcome. 0:11:17.836 --> 0:11:20.876 I mean, you can't find another place in society where 0:11:20.916 --> 0:11:22.076 that's the case, right. 0:11:21.916 --> 0:11:24.516 Where people care so much about something and they walk 0:11:24.596 --> 0:11:27.316 in going, yeah, you know, there's about a fifty to 0:11:27.316 --> 0:11:30.556 fifty chance that I'm gonna hate this at the end 0:11:30.596 --> 0:11:31.476 of consuming it. 0:11:32.036 --> 0:11:34.716 I can't control the outcome. Let's go. 0:11:44.516 --> 0:11:47.036 Let's go back to nineteen eighty seven is a starting point, 0:11:47.516 --> 0:11:50.756 the year danjan forgot his homework and stumbled into a career. 0:11:52.116 --> 0:11:55.436 In nineteen eighty seven, the highest rated TV program in 0:11:55.476 --> 0:11:59.236 the United States, according to Nielsen research, was The Cosby Show, 0:12:00.156 --> 0:12:04.436 followed by a Different World, Cheers and The Golden Girls. 0:12:05.116 --> 0:12:07.676 Only one of the top thirty TV shows in nineteen 0:12:07.716 --> 0:12:11.476 eighty seven had anything to do with sports. Monday Night 0:12:11.516 --> 0:12:15.916 Football came in sixteenth. TV's changed a lot since nineteen 0:12:15.956 --> 0:12:20.996 eighty seven. In twenty twenty three, ninety three of the 0:12:21.036 --> 0:12:24.356 one hundred most watched broadcasts in the United States were 0:12:24.396 --> 0:12:29.036 sporting events. Twenty NFL games drew bigger crowds than the 0:12:29.036 --> 0:12:32.956 State of the Union address, fifty eight NFL games, and 0:12:33.036 --> 0:12:36.596 one college football game had more viewers than the oscars. 0:12:37.636 --> 0:12:39.756 Only when you get to the second hundred most watched 0:12:39.756 --> 0:12:43.796 TV shows, does football start to get some competition from 0:12:43.836 --> 0:12:49.756 basketball and baseball, pro golf and the Kentucky Derby. There's 0:12:49.796 --> 0:12:52.636 no longer any question of whether sports and sports fans 0:12:52.676 --> 0:12:56.596 are central to our culture. The question is does our 0:12:56.636 --> 0:13:03.396 culture have a center without them? 0:13:03.636 --> 0:13:06.556 What about the fans? What about the fan? 0:13:07.436 --> 0:13:09.636 Andrew Brant runs the Center for Sport Sorts Law at 0:13:09.676 --> 0:13:13.516 Villanova University, but before that he spent a decade running 0:13:13.516 --> 0:13:15.356 the business end of the Green Bay Packers. 0:13:17.596 --> 0:13:21.836 And I feel for the fan because listen, I cover business, 0:13:22.196 --> 0:13:26.996 and in these business negotiations between leagues and players, associations, 0:13:27.476 --> 0:13:32.876 media networks and leagues, municipalities and teams about stadiums and 0:13:32.996 --> 0:13:37.396 taxpayer money, the fans are not party, right, There's no 0:13:37.556 --> 0:13:42.356 negotiation where well, let's see what the fan thinks. 0:13:41.996 --> 0:13:42.156 Right. 0:13:42.756 --> 0:13:46.316 So I understand sports is fun and games, and I 0:13:46.356 --> 0:13:50.236 tell my students all the time, but it's not at 0:13:50.236 --> 0:13:53.036 this level. It's not. It's a business, and it's a 0:13:53.076 --> 0:13:56.916 cold business. You see players shipped out left and right. 0:13:56.996 --> 0:14:00.916 You see fans kind of a pawn in the process, 0:14:01.556 --> 0:14:05.596 but they keep coming back, They keep coming back. 0:14:06.276 --> 0:14:09.756 It's such an alluring product that the dollar doesn't have 0:14:09.796 --> 0:14:11.956 to pay much attention to the interests of the buyer. 0:14:12.796 --> 0:14:17.476 Well, they come back despite despite prices rising, despite cable 0:14:17.476 --> 0:14:21.516 bills rising, despite all those things. If there was a 0:14:21.556 --> 0:14:26.516 breaking point where fans say that I've had enough, maybe 0:14:27.036 --> 0:14:33.956 prices would change, maybe availability would change. We just don't know, but. 0:14:33.876 --> 0:14:37.316 We sort of do know. Booming ticket prices, teams jumping 0:14:37.316 --> 0:14:40.436 around from city to city, players jumping around from team 0:14:40.476 --> 0:14:44.396 to team, college sports becoming a raw money grab. People 0:14:44.476 --> 0:14:47.236 used to say that greedy capitalism would kill fan interest, 0:14:47.316 --> 0:14:49.156 but not a chance. No matter what you do to 0:14:49.196 --> 0:14:51.516 the fan, or to his team or to his sport, 0:14:52.156 --> 0:14:54.916 he's been willing to take it and come back for more. 0:14:55.916 --> 0:14:58.036 The Green Bay Packers are the only pro sports teams 0:14:58.036 --> 0:15:00.876 that's owned by their fans, and so they publish their 0:15:00.876 --> 0:15:05.156 financial results. Andrew Brent knows this better than anyone. The Packers' 0:15:05.156 --> 0:15:09.036 finances over time show you the dollar value of fan interest. 0:15:10.436 --> 0:15:13.876 So think about gross revenues, right. Gross revenues when I 0:15:13.916 --> 0:15:17.916 got there in nineteen ninety nine were about two hundred million. 0:15:18.436 --> 0:15:21.356 By the time I left in two thousand and nine, 0:15:22.276 --> 0:15:25.436 Packers had revenues of four hundred and fifty million dollars, 0:15:25.796 --> 0:15:28.276 so more than double that amount in a decade. 0:15:29.476 --> 0:15:31.796 Back in nineteen eighty seven, the Packers, if they could 0:15:31.876 --> 0:15:35.076 legally be sold, could have been bought for roughly ninety 0:15:35.076 --> 0:15:39.116 million dollars. Forbes now values the team at five point 0:15:39.236 --> 0:15:43.436 six billion. The Packers didn't publish their players' salaries back 0:15:43.436 --> 0:15:45.996 in nineteen eighty seven. They weren't that interesting, but no 0:15:46.036 --> 0:15:49.356 one made more than six figures. Last year, the team's 0:15:49.436 --> 0:15:54.476 left tackle made twenty one point three million dollars. Who's 0:15:54.556 --> 0:15:57.916 ultimately paying for all this the fans, of course, through 0:15:57.956 --> 0:16:01.956 ticket sales, through cable bills, through less tangible ways like 0:16:02.116 --> 0:16:05.636 taxes and viewership. There is a word for people who 0:16:05.676 --> 0:16:08.516 pay more and more for the same product, and who 0:16:08.516 --> 0:16:11.316 will continue to pay more and more no matter how 0:16:11.396 --> 0:16:14.156 badly it makes them feel. Addict. 0:16:17.196 --> 0:16:20.756 I have spent the better part of three and a 0:16:20.836 --> 0:16:24.276 half decades studying how sports fans cope with losses. 0:16:24.996 --> 0:16:28.836 Professor Dan Wan again, the world's first sports fan researcher. 0:16:29.636 --> 0:16:32.396 All, it's like, give me a little toolbox, give me 0:16:32.436 --> 0:16:33.436 the toolbox for coping. 0:16:33.636 --> 0:16:38.116 Okay, So, first of all, sports fans are great at 0:16:38.156 --> 0:16:44.956 seeing the past through incredibly rose colored glasses. Right, So 0:16:46.116 --> 0:16:49.716 you ask people, okay, ten years ago, how many games 0:16:49.716 --> 0:16:50.716 did your team win? 0:16:51.436 --> 0:16:53.716 They actually will overestimate that. 0:16:54.476 --> 0:16:58.076 Coping strategy Number one for the addict, you ignore the facts, 0:16:58.436 --> 0:17:02.476 you rewrite history, so whatever actually happened becomes what you 0:17:02.556 --> 0:17:03.396 wish had happened. 0:17:04.396 --> 0:17:07.556 They also had a sendency to see the future as 0:17:07.596 --> 0:17:10.876 being prettier than it's probably gonna be. So we like 0:17:11.436 --> 0:17:16.516 construct our reality based on the fact our team's not 0:17:16.596 --> 0:17:18.996 doing well now, but man, it was so great before, 0:17:19.036 --> 0:17:19.996 and man it's gonna. 0:17:19.836 --> 0:17:20.836 Be so great in the future. 0:17:21.036 --> 0:17:24.636 Every crappy NFL team, well, all the fan bases to 0:17:24.636 --> 0:17:27.116 talk about next year's draft. That's what they always talk about, 0:17:27.156 --> 0:17:28.356 because we're gonna have a good pick. 0:17:28.876 --> 0:17:33.916 Coping Strategy Number two and active Fantasy life. Whatever just happened, 0:17:34.116 --> 0:17:37.316 it doesn't matter because it has no bearing on what 0:17:37.396 --> 0:17:37.956 will happen. 0:17:38.676 --> 0:17:41.836 Another thing that fans do is they will find a 0:17:41.876 --> 0:17:47.756 way to move the cause off of the team and 0:17:47.876 --> 0:17:49.036 onto some other entity. 0:17:49.476 --> 0:17:51.596 It was the ref's fault. 0:17:52.036 --> 0:17:57.036 Coping strategy Number three, my personal favorite. We were robbed, 0:17:57.796 --> 0:18:02.876 the game was stolen, rigged. It's all rigged. The fans 0:18:02.916 --> 0:18:06.396 need to believe is so powerful that it warps reality. 0:18:06.556 --> 0:18:10.956 You never need to change your belief, which brings us 0:18:10.996 --> 0:18:14.556 to the weird stuff. Dan loves the weird stuff. 0:18:15.556 --> 0:18:19.636 One person said that his superstition was that when watching 0:18:19.676 --> 0:18:22.396 his favorite team on TV, he had to go up 0:18:22.436 --> 0:18:25.076 to the opposing team's free throw shooter and put his 0:18:25.236 --> 0:18:30.316 hand over that person's eyes to distract him on the TV. 0:18:31.516 --> 0:18:32.276 On the TV. 0:18:32.836 --> 0:18:35.356 This is a person who is getting a master's degree 0:18:35.356 --> 0:18:38.036 from our psychology program. 0:18:38.196 --> 0:18:38.676 Here's the thing. 0:18:38.716 --> 0:18:41.196 Not only I mean I have to rub I have 0:18:41.316 --> 0:18:44.756 to rub my favorite pack of baseball cards on my cat. 0:18:44.836 --> 0:18:47.556 I have to light incense to the Buddha out back. 0:18:47.756 --> 0:18:50.276 We can't let mom in the room because she's bad luck. 0:18:50.316 --> 0:18:53.956 But here's the thing, Michael, here's the thing. We asked 0:18:53.996 --> 0:18:57.436 him on a one to eight scale, one not at 0:18:57.516 --> 0:19:02.636 all eight hundred percent, how convinced are you that your 0:19:02.676 --> 0:19:05.836 superstitions impact the outcome of the sporting event? 0:19:06.436 --> 0:19:08.436 And the average score was about five. 0:19:09.156 --> 0:19:13.356 Think about that. These are educated people, right, and were like, well, 0:19:14.156 --> 0:19:16.356 are you gonna stop? Well, I know it's silly, but 0:19:16.436 --> 0:19:17.036 I still. 0:19:16.836 --> 0:19:17.436 Have to do it. 0:19:18.516 --> 0:19:21.916 This isn't just people doing obviously dumb shit. It's people 0:19:22.036 --> 0:19:26.236 capable of knowing they're doing dumb shit and somehow still 0:19:26.276 --> 0:19:27.636 refusing to know it. 0:19:28.436 --> 0:19:31.556 We had one person he actually did his own study 0:19:31.596 --> 0:19:35.076 with this lucky Saint Louis Cardinals' hat, where he kept 0:19:35.116 --> 0:19:36.916 track for a whole season of how many they won 0:19:36.996 --> 0:19:38.676 when he wore the hat and how many they won 0:19:38.756 --> 0:19:39.316 when he didn't. 0:19:39.436 --> 0:19:42.156 And he showed us this is scientific. Now, this is scientific. 0:19:42.316 --> 0:19:44.476 He showed us how they had a better winning percent. 0:19:44.556 --> 0:19:45.636 So now he asked to wear the. 0:19:45.596 --> 0:19:53.836 Hat, warping reality, blaming others, embracing superstitions, all to cope 0:19:53.876 --> 0:19:58.756 with a very basic situation that you can't control all 0:19:58.796 --> 0:20:08.276 symptoms of fandom. All right, let's get back to Eric 0:20:08.316 --> 0:20:10.996 Simon's the math teacher and science writer who was on 0:20:11.076 --> 0:20:14.316 the Bart train after his team lost, wondering what was 0:20:14.356 --> 0:20:17.596 wrong with him. You established pretty quickly there was not 0:20:17.756 --> 0:20:20.956 some part of your brain that was responsible for this, right, 0:20:21.436 --> 0:20:24.996 It's all your brain. Eric eventually writes an entire book 0:20:25.036 --> 0:20:27.076 about all of this, It's called The Secret Lives of 0:20:27.116 --> 0:20:29.716 Sports Fans. Trying to figure out what's underneath all the 0:20:29.716 --> 0:20:34.156 weird behavior, Eric winds up talking to neurologists and psychologists 0:20:34.236 --> 0:20:36.556 people had learned all kinds of interesting stuff about the 0:20:36.636 --> 0:20:39.476 human brain, but hadn't thought to apply it to the 0:20:39.476 --> 0:20:40.636 brains of sports fans. 0:20:42.116 --> 0:20:45.596 This is what our hormones do when we're working against 0:20:45.636 --> 0:20:50.676 other people. This is what we do when we're in groups. 0:20:50.236 --> 0:20:53.756 It's affecting your judgments. I think people talk about this 0:20:53.836 --> 0:20:56.756 more in a societal context than a sports fan context. 0:20:56.756 --> 0:21:01.156 But like a basic example, there's cameras everywhere, there's slow 0:21:01.196 --> 0:21:03.796 mo instant replay everywhere. Why is it that with like 0:21:03.876 --> 0:21:08.196 nineteen different instant replays people divide, They get more convinced 0:21:08.396 --> 0:21:10.796 I'm right, the other guys are wrong. How can you 0:21:10.796 --> 0:21:14.316 show two people video clips in super slow motion and 0:21:14.356 --> 0:21:18.116 they still disagree about what happened? Is because, like this 0:21:18.196 --> 0:21:23.276 whole enterprise is challenging your perception. It's changing what you see. 0:21:25.076 --> 0:21:28.276 It's changing what you see. So we not only tolerate, 0:21:28.436 --> 0:21:32.316 but actively pursue interests that lead us to warp reality. 0:21:32.476 --> 0:21:35.596 But what purpose does that serve? One answer that Eric 0:21:35.636 --> 0:21:38.676 found had been supplied long ago by a Polish social 0:21:38.756 --> 0:21:43.436 psychologist named Henry Tagfel. Tagfell had his own curious journey 0:21:43.476 --> 0:21:44.156 to the subject. 0:21:45.116 --> 0:21:49.076 He is Jewish in the nineteen twenties. Nineteen thirties, then 0:21:49.116 --> 0:21:52.796 moves to France just before the start of World War Two. 0:21:53.276 --> 0:21:56.636 He volunteers for the French army he has captured. He 0:21:56.716 --> 0:21:58.996 goes home to Poland after the war and finds out 0:21:59.036 --> 0:22:01.356 that most of his friends and family have been killed, 0:22:01.996 --> 0:22:05.596 and this sort of sets him on this course of 0:22:05.636 --> 0:22:10.516 trying to understand why do people do this? Where do 0:22:10.876 --> 0:22:15.836 these divisions in societies come from, Where does prejudice come from? 0:22:17.396 --> 0:22:20.556 Why do people have this ability to turn against each 0:22:20.556 --> 0:22:24.436 other in such a way to stop recognizing each other's humanity. 0:22:25.596 --> 0:22:28.676 Cag Pellat survived the war only because he'd become identified 0:22:28.716 --> 0:22:32.156 with a group to which he didn't really belong French soldiers, 0:22:32.716 --> 0:22:36.676 rather than to the one he did Polish Jews. He 0:22:36.716 --> 0:22:39.396 wanted to study the power of groups, and so he 0:22:39.436 --> 0:22:43.996 started by taking his students and just dividing them in two. 0:22:43.156 --> 0:22:46.756 And one of his principal findings, which is called minimal 0:22:46.796 --> 0:22:51.516 group theory, is that doesn't have to matter the differences 0:22:51.556 --> 0:22:54.996 between the groups, that you could be divided into groups 0:22:55.636 --> 0:23:01.076 incredibly arbitrarily. He divided kids, mostly schoolboys in his studies 0:23:01.596 --> 0:23:05.436 into groups on the basis of flipping a coin, and 0:23:05.476 --> 0:23:10.996 what he found and what collaborators found is that just 0:23:11.076 --> 0:23:13.196 that arbitrary division you guys are over here, you guys 0:23:13.196 --> 0:23:17.876 are over here, is enough to then produce pretty significant 0:23:18.556 --> 0:23:20.916 differences in how those groups behave toward each other. For 0:23:20.996 --> 0:23:22.956 no other reason than we said, you're in that one 0:23:22.996 --> 0:23:23.716 and you're in that one. 0:23:24.116 --> 0:23:26.836 So much shallower than the difference between the Chiefs and 0:23:26.876 --> 0:23:27.476