Why going to football matches really is good for you and should be encouraged

 

 

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By Tony Attwood

As a recent piece from the British Psychological Society reports rather obviously, most people in the UK now have access to a smartphone, and thus have the ability to switch from one outlet (TikTok, YouTube, Netflix etc) to another, as often as they want, whenever they want.  

This is interesting because it has been assumed that the ability to flip from one place to another allows one to find the type of entertainment wanted, But what the research found in fact was that this ability to flip from one place to another in search of entertainment, tends to increase a feeling of boredom and listlessness. 

Indeed, when a multiple choice of simultaneous opportunities is not available (such as when sitting or standing watching a football match in which one is interested) the result is much more positive.  The people watching with commitment rather than those flipping channels from one option to another, get much more out of their viewing – and generally, their lives.

In essence being part of something with commitment, (even if one is just watching and not able to participate in any way other than shouting approval or swearing at the opposition and the referee), is a very positive experience for most of us, even when the result goes against us.  The engagement in terms of wanting our team to win, really is psychologically very beneficial.

The same seems to be true in terms of reading a magazine article in detail as opposed to flipping from page to page.

In short being focused on a football match, a movie, or a book we are reading is much more positive for us than flipping between one thing and the next.  In fact, as a paper, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology has shown, “switching between lots of different online content” can make us more, not less, bored.

The experiments that led to this finding were “replicated with different videos, different people, different lengths of video, and with reactions not just by choosing a tick box to represent one’s feelings but also open-ended questions.”  

All the time the results were the same.  “If something feels tedious, then it makes sense we’d jump to something else.” But in fact that doesn’t help and we are liable to flip on to something different again, and again.  We lose the sense of real engagement.

In short, the “more immersive” the experience (and of course as a football supporter you will probably find every game you go to see, fully immersive) you are more likely to pay attention to what you’re watching.

Put another way, SUPPORTING A FOOTBALL TEAM IS GOOD FOR YOUR PSYCHE.

On the other hand, on a computer or on a TV, “switching between different tasks disturbs attention, reducing immersion and heightening boredom at the same time.”

Now I think this is important, for multiple reasons.  One reason is that there has forever been a battle between those showing a complete match and those offering “edited highlights”.  The latter do far less for us in terms of stimulating our emotions and bringing us to life, than watching a full match.

In short, watching a complete football match is psychologically a good thing to do.  But more than that, watching a whole game live and being emotionally engaged in what one is watching is even better for one, even if one’s own team loses.

This is because the emotional engagement is there irrespective of the result.  And to be clear, this is not about making an individual happy (although that could be seen as a good bonus).  It is about engaging the individual’s emotions.   Of course, we all of us prefer positive emotions to negative emotions – but basically experiencing emotions is always much better for us as human beings, than not being engaged at all.

As such watching live sport – especially when we are watching a complete game live – can be engaging and helpful for all of us and is something that really ought to be encouraged, while edited highlights will have a far lesser effect, and can actually have a negative effect on the viewer.

Thus football can have a real benefit for the people who watch.  Sadly however people who go to football games are often considered lesser creatures in our society by those who don’t – many of whom have never experienced the benefit of seeing a complete game live.  For the emotional and psychological benefit of watching a football match all the way through is much the same as the emotional and psychological benefit that derives from going to the opera.

In short, the hierarchy of events which suggests for example that opera is in some way better than football – should be challenged .  All live events can be beneficial to the watcher – and the more engagement they encourage the better.  Edited highlights, however, can actually have the opposite effect and can lead to boredom and listlessness.

Those presenting “highlights” shows should remember this.  They are not doing their audience any favours.  Quite the reverse in fact..