After the Boston Red Sox won the World Series last October, a Boston friend told me he rode an emotional high for weeks, and even now feels a rush of exhilaration when he recalls the victory.
It's a strange phenomenon, isn't it? Why should we feel the thrill of victory when we weren't even competing? Sports betting aside, when our team wins, we get nothing--no money, no glory--yet we still invest ourselves emotionally in an event over which we exert zero influence.
We can't help it. With apologies to the Gender Equality Police, women don't seem to understand that we guys have to watch sports--that's how we're wired.
Like all primates, human males subconsciously assume positions in the social hierarchy, using subtle cues to proclaim one's dominance or to acknowledge one's submissiveness. Someone who makes eye contact with you so piercing that you uncomfortably look away, is claiming he is your social superior. If you don't accept his claim, you'll both unconsciously engage in forms of one-upmanship until one person concedes the other's dominance.
It's a game that means more than you might think, said Alan Booth, professor of sociology at Pennsylvania State University.
When the submissive person looks away, the \winner's"" testosterone level briefly rises and the ""loser's"" briefly drops. This makes sense, Booth said, because in the wild, after two males tussle, the winner has to be ready to defend himself from the next challenger. And because the loser has less testosterone, hence less aggression, he will not issue another challenge, thereby giving him time to recover from his defeat before engaging in another struggle.
Researchers notice that in a competition such as a football game, the players' testosterone level starts rising about 30 minutes before the game starts and stays high throughout the game, with the increases higher in the home team than in the visitors. Afterward the winners' level goes even higher, and the losers' level drops.
The same phenomenon even occurs in non-physical competitions such as a chess match, or even something as simple as a staring contest, and it also happens to a lesser degree in women.
Though testosterone hasn't been definitively linked to mood, research indicates that elevating testosterone levels in those with typically low levels gives them a sense of better well-being. So if testosterone is so great, why don't men take testosterone supplements? Unfortunately, testosterone degrades when taken orally, so it has to be injected.
""Even then, if you give a man testosterone, that turns off his own internal system because he's getting the hormone from outside and the pituitary shuts down,"" said Edward Ehrlich, UW-Madison professor emeritus in the department of medicine. ""In fact, scientists are looking at injectable testosterone as a form of male contraception.""
Okay, so we'll stick to producing it naturally. But scientists say that doesn't mean we have to constantly create competitions for ourselves. The same testosterone spikes occur even if you're not a participant but only a fan.
In 1994 scientists found that after the World Cup finals between Brazil and Italy, male fans of the winning Brazil team had a 15- to 20-percent rise in testosterone after the game, and Italian fans had a comparable decrease. Jane Piliavin, UW-Madison professor of sociology who teaches a class on the sociology of sport, said this happens because we live vicariously through the groups with whom we identify.
""I think this goes back a long way in evolution, when identifying with our little band of hunters and gatherers had survival value,"" she said.
In fact, her colleague, Robert Cialdini at Arizona State University, noticed something interesting. On Monday mornings following an ASU football victory, a lot of students would be wearing ASU gear. Following a loss, he would see almost no school gear, an observation he confirmed with professors at other universities. He even noticed that when a person's team wins, the fan says, ""We won,"" but after a loss, he says, ""They lost.""
The natural highs guys get from testosterone spikes are good for our health, Booth said. They can improve muscle mass, and also contribute to a feeling of well-being and comfort. So when guys follow sports, it's not that we're being lazy--we're reconnecting with an innate need to align ourselves with competition.
Booth speculated women might benefit when their men watch sports. He quoted a study showing that male executives who landed big contracts frequently had more sex afterward, probably because of elevated testosterone. Booth said this may or may not happen for sports fans as well, but he doesn't promise anything.
""It could be that when a guy's team wins, he's so pumped that he wants to get together with other guys and throw around the football,"" he said. ""In that case, the female is out of luck.""
Dinesh Ramde is a graduate student in journalism. You can e-mail him at dramde@wisc.edu.
