Sports fans as religious believers

Writing for Psychology Today, Nigel Barber asks whether modern day spectator sports function as religions. The evidence suggests that the answer is yes:

“The similarities between sport fandom and organized religion are striking. Consider the vocabulary associated with both: faith, devotion, worship, ritual, dedication, sacrifice, commitment, spirit, prayer, suffering, festival, and celebration.” . . . [S]pectators worship other human beings, their achievements, and the groups to which they belong.” And . . . sports stadia and arenas resemble “cathedrals where followers gather to worship their heroes and pray for their successes.”

Fans wear the team colors and carry its flags, icons, and mascots. Then there is repetitive chanting of team encouragement, hand-clapping, booing the other team, doing the wave, and so forth. The singing of an anthem at a sporting event likely has similar psychological effects as the singing of a hymn in church. . . . As a group, sports fans are fairly religious, according to research. It is also curious that as religious attendance rates have dropped off in recent decades, interest in sport spectatorship has soared. . .

[F]ans are highly committed to their favored stars and teams in a way that gives focus and meaning to their daily lives. In addition, sports spectatorship is a transformative experience through which fans escape their humdrum lives, just as religious experiences help the faithful to transcend their everyday existence.

The same issue of Psychology Today features the ex-gods and the ex-goddesses of the sports/religions. Their sports careers often end with a thud.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Avatar of Mike M.
    Mike M.

    I would extend this concept further out and contend that Patriotism is also a religion. To bolster my point, I've taken the liberty of substituting the word 'sport' with 'patriotism', and 'fans' with 'patriots', and 'team' with 'Nation'. Just to see how it reads..and if it holds up. It does, imo.

    “The similarities between patriotism and organized religion are striking. Consider the vocabulary associated with both: faith, devotion, worship, ritual, dedication, sacrifice, commitment, spirit, prayer, suffering, festival, and celebration.” . . . Patriots worship soldiers, their achievements, and the groups to which they belong.”

    Patriots wear the team colors and carry its flags, icons, and mascots. Then there is repetitive chanting of "Nation encouragement", hand-clapping, booing the other nation, doing the wave, and so forth. The singing of an anthem at a patriotic rally likely has similar psychological effects as the singing of a hymn in church. . . .

    Patriots are highly committed to their favored Nation in a way that gives focus and meaning to their daily lives. In addition, Patriotism is a transformative experience through which patriots escape their humdrum lives, just as religious experiences help the faithful to transcend their everyday existence."

    1. Avatar of Erich Vieth
      Erich Vieth

      Mike M. I agree that patriotism is a social phenomenon akin to religion. I wouldn't say that either spectator sports or patriotism ARE religions, but many indicia overlap. It is for this reason that we ought not limit the study of religion to religion, strictly speaking. I believe that there are many related social phenomena that should be studied for the things they have in common. Once one does that, I suspect that we'll see that this groupishness paired with cognition that is distorted in ways that facilitate the groupishness constitute an evolutionary adaptation.

      For more, see
      http://dangerousintersection.org/2011/03/04/david
      http://dangerousintersection.org/2011/03/07/the-n
      http://dangerousintersection.org/2011/03/13/three

      and
      http://dangerousintersection.org/2011/03/27/is-re

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