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.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/when-your-football-team-wins-you-eat-healthier-food/2016/02/05/40c17fd8-cb57-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html

http://faculty.insead.edu/pierre-chandon/documents/Cornil%20Chandon%20From%20Fan%20to%20Fat%20Psych%20Science%20Online%20First.pdf

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).

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