Aaron C.T. Smith

But the cultural connections to regions and areas in particular sports can often be quite tenuous.

It might have been a big brother or sister.

It might have been an early exposure in order to create a social connection with a group we wanted to be part of.

It might have been connected to a particular regional cultural affiliation with a certain sports, depending on where you grow up in the world.

Today it's changing, though, of course, where young people today are not necessarily the same kinds of fans that older generations have been, which are fans for life.

I mean, a good example is that we know from research fans are twice as likely to change their marriage partner as they are their sporting team allegiance, you know, over the course of their lifetimes.

But what's beautiful about sport is that that love is

tends not to diminish, unlike our romantic partners with whom we get bored.

And part of it is because of all of the, not just psychological payoffs, but all of the neurochemical and hormonal responses that come because we feed the brain's pleasure pathways as a consequence of indulging in sport.

So in a sense, going back to your original question, it doesn't really matter who we support.

It's the consequences of that support which give us the sense of

uh belonging and the deeper meaning and our brains then come to the party by triggering a cascade an avalanche of what neuroscientists call happy hormones

The jury's still out in terms of research about exactly whether certain individuals have a greater propensity for fandom.

It appears that they might well be because of their desire for a strong identification.

And it also appears that people become more strong in their identification when they need that psychological reward because that sense of identification leads to positive structure, meaning and community.

And many fans do become deeper fans over time as they find that genuine lifelong friendship and emotional support.

and the sense of resilience that comes along with being part of a social identity with their community.

As for why certain individuals gravitate towards certain teams and then forge the strength of relationship probably has something to do with our need for two different and competing tensions.

One is a desire, of course, to belong to something, to be part of something bigger.

So we're all trying to be part of a tribe.