Why Fanatics Booing Athletes Isn’t Personal
If you’ve ever been booed at a sporting event, it may not have felt like anything was personal, but a study published suggests that people’s reactions to the actions of athletes are not as objective as we think. In an article in PLOS One, researchers explore how booing is related to how fans feel about their favorite sportsman or sportswoman.
They write: ‘This research investigates the extent to which booing at sporting events can be attributed to negative feelings toward athletes and/or disapproval of their respective performance.’
They add that while some people may just be responding negatively to what they see on the field — whether it be because they don’t agree with what is happening, or simply out of disdain for the individual in question. However, others might genuinely dislike an athlete and his or her actions. So if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of a loud chorus of boos when your team has taken to the pitch or court — you may be reading too much into things.
The psychology of booing
When you boo an athlete, you’re sending them a message. The kind of message you’re sending is based on how you feel about the athlete in question, as well as how you’re feeling at the time. If you’re feeling frustrated about a game or an athlete, you may boo. Similarly, if you’re feeling optimistic about a game or an athlete, you may cheer. So, when you boo at a sporting event, you’re not just reacting negatively to what you’re seeing on the pitch — you’re also voicing your feelings about the athletes who are performing. If you’re feeling frustrated about a game or an athlete, you may boo. If you’re feeling optimistic about a game or an athlete, you may cheer.
How fans feel about their favorite athletes
When researching how people boo athletes, the researchers examined how fans felt about their favorite sportsmen. They found that fans of football and rugby players were considerably more negative towards those athletes than fans of those in other sports.
In other words, people who enjoy watching rugby and football are likely to react negatively to the players involved in those sports. People who like other sports, on the other hand, are less likely to react negatively to their athletes. This means that the way fans of certain sports react to the actions of their favorite athletes can be used as a way of identifying how a person feels about the game itself.
What happens at sporting events can influence how fans feel
As well as being influenced by how fans feel about the players involved in a game, the researchers also found that how fans feel about the game itself can impact their behavior at a sporting event. Specifically, if fans are particularly frustrated about a game, they are more likely to react negatively towards the athletes involved.
Additionally, if fans feel optimistic about a game, they are more likely to cheer and be generally positive during the event. This means that the way fans react to the game itself — through cheering, jeering and other forms of communicating with their fellow spectators — can also influence how fans feel about the players involved in a game.
Finding a solution to fan negativity
No one is cheering or booing at every sporting event — so it’s inevitable that someone will react negatively to what they see on the pitch. In fact, most sports fans will boo at some point. The big question is why. The university researchers suggest that while fans dislike the actions of some sportspeople, they dislike them less than they dislike other aspects of the game itself.
They write: ‘Having attended a game or two, we gained a greater appreciation of the challenges facing athletes and their fans.’ This suggests that the key to reducing fan negativity may be to reduce the negativity around aspects of sporting events that fans dislike, rather than trying harder to make fans like them.
Conclusion
Fans of certain sports might be more likely to boo their athletes than fans of other sports, but the researchers suggest that this is more a reflection of how fans feel about the sports themselves than anything else. While booing an athlete is a negative thing to do, it’s worth remembering that fans of certain sports may dislike certain aspects of the games more than others, which can lead to increased negativity towards the athletes involved.
As such, the researchers suggest that sports organizations should focus on reducing the negativity surrounding aspects of games that fans dislike, rather than trying to make fans like them more. This could mean focusing on improving the quality of the playing surface, the quality of the facilities used by players, etc., rather than trying to make fans like the color pink.