Skip to main content

How fans change their eating habits after their team wins or loses



The American Super Bowl on the weekend will most likely have an impact on fans the next day, of both the winning side and the losing side – in terms of their eating habits (The Washington Post, February 5, 2016).

Research published in the Psychological Science journal focused on the effect team wins and losses have on people’s food choices. The researchers, Yann Cornil and Pierre Chandon of the Institut Prive D’enseignement Superieur (INSEAD), France, analyzed the daily food consumption of 700 American households during two seasons of the National Football League.

The average age of the respondents was 38, with 52% female, living in major cities. They were requested to keep a food diary for 14 days, and again a year later, for 14 days. They also had a control group of people in cities without football teams or whose team did not play during the survey period.

The results showed that people ate 10% more calories and 16% more saturated fat than normal on the day after their team lost. In eight cities with the most devoted NFL fans, their saturated fat consumption increased by 28% after a loss (compared with 9% for the less devoted fans). The ‘we almost won but lost’ scenario resulted in eating more junk food, even more than a big loss. [Other studies have shown that cardiac incidents increase after losses, and fans also lose their ability to control anger, disappointment, and sadness.]

The study also showed that fans ate better than usual on the day after their team won. After a win people ate 5% fewer calories and 9% less saturated fat than usual. In devoted fans, saturated fat decreased by 16% after victories (and 4% by less devoted fans).

The researchers also looked at 157 French soccer fans and what they felt like eating after watching videos of the national team’s victory over Italy in the 2000 European championship final and its loss against Italy in the 2006 World Cup final. A similar result occurred. The French participants chose less-healthy food after watching the winning game and less-healthy food after watching the loss.

The researchers concluded that eating decisions are not always under people’s own control. Emotions, norms, and what is happening in their environment contributes to people’s eating decisions – and the more intense the emotion, the more they change their eating habits.





MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing