Fans share in team success by saying "we," even if not actively playing.

Pronouns shift from "we" to "they" when fans feel let down by losses.

The opposite of pride is not humility for sports fans; it is shame.

In my hometown, at a wedding or a funeral, you will not see people dressed in a blue jersey with the number 17 sewn on the front.

But it seems like just about everywhere else—at sports bars, of course, but also at the supermarket, in the neighborhood, even at the office on “casual Fridays”—fans are honoring the Buffalo Bills quarterback, Josh Allen. Meanwhile, admirers are joining his fame, celebrating his stellar performances, and together with one voice, cheering his prospects. It says so on the pullover, the hoodie, the t-shirt, and the coffee mug.

As it happens so far early in this season, “we” are winning, spectacularly.

I use the pronoun advisedly. Fifty years ago, a young psychologist, Robert B. Cialdini, and his colleagues noticed a very interesting phenomenon when they conducted field experiments into fans’ emotions.

They found that people tended to personally associate themselves with a team’s success even though they had nothing, per se, to do with it. (Perhaps the loud “home-field advantage” is a possible exception as the 13th Man drowns out the opposing quarterback’s calls.) However, no spectator at an NFL game gets to throw a touchdown pass; nobody sitting in the stadium will leap for that game-changing interception. (Though spectators will sympathize deeply and with heart, feeling the vibe, mirror neurons firing.) And nobody watching at home can expect that their team will hear their gleeful shouts and favorable murmurs. Still, devotees proudly and personally bask in the glow of their team’s victories.

With loyalty rewarded, Monday mornings after a hometown victory are........

© Psychology Today