The Asian Cup has begun! Small footballs have made fans crazy, how can we watch the game rationally?

The much-anticipated Asian Cup has begun, and it is a carnival for football fans. According to data released by the Asian Football Confederation, the cumulative number of viewers in China during the broadcast of the event in 2015 reached an astonishing 914 million. The "2022 China Football Fan Marketing Value Report" shows that among the fan penetration rates of major ball sports in the world, football accounts for 43%, and the number of football fans worldwide has reached 3.46 billion. Why does football have such great charm and such a large fan base?

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01 Achievement motivation

First of all, football is an intense competitive sport. Football may have originated from ancient military training. Today, on the football field, players collide with each other very fiercely, and even fractures often occur. The high-intensity confrontation intensifies the desire for victory of both competitors.

Why do we get so excited when we win a competition? From a psychological perspective, when we win a competition, we actually satisfy our achievement motivation and feel proud and happy.

Achievement motivation is the drive of people to pursue and achieve goals . John William Atkinson, a famous American psychologist, believes that people will have two psychological tendencies when competing: the motivation to pursue achievement and the motivation to avoid failure. The motivation to avoid failure refers to the motivation to avoid failure, trying to escape from the work situation to avoid expected failure, which will make people worry about failure and fear difficulties.

Achievement motivation always drives people to achieve success and win in certain aspects, and in the process of overcoming obstacles and difficulties, achievement motivation also makes people face up to the setbacks and failures they encounter. At the same time, there is also a physiological basis for the pleasure of competitive victory. According to neuroscience research, competitive games can activate multiple areas in our brains, including the reward system, emotional system, cognitive control system, and social cognitive system. The reward system is the part of our brain responsible for processing rewards and punishments, mainly involving dopamine neurons . Dopamine is a chemical in the brain related to pleasure. When we win a competition, it will stimulate the release of dopamine, making us feel happy and satisfied, and allowing us to enjoy the joy of victory more.

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Therefore, winning a competition brings us a sense of pleasure, which is the result of the psychological motivation for achievement and the chemical substances working together. Fans watching the game will also be infected by the competitive atmosphere and feel the joy of victory together with the team or players they support.

02 Projection and Mirror Neurons

Athletes become the sustenance of fans' lives and also a projection of themselves. Athletes fight for victory on the court, and many fans will be more excited than the players on the court when watching the game. They will dance and jump as if they are dribbling past the players on the court. This emotion is actually a kind of projection. We project our emotions and experiences onto the objects we watch, thus triggering a strong emotional resonance. Especially for idols and favorite teams, the more we like them, the closer the psychological distance is, and the stronger the projection is likely to be.

There is also a physiological mechanism for projection, called mirror neurons, which are special sensory motor neurons in the cerebral cortex. Their main function is to understand the intentions of others' actions . The mirror mechanism is to pair action perception with action execution. When the brain senses the action perception of others, it will activate the action execution neural circuit, thereby simulating the actions that others are going to perform in order to grasp the behavioral intentions of others. Neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni is a pioneer in mirror neuroscience research. He believes that mirror neurons are the neural basis of human emotional abilities, such as empathy. Therefore, when we see football players running and cheering, in the excitement and excitement, our brains will imitate similar emotions and experiences, which will also make us have strong emotional resonance when watching competitive sports.

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03 Bandwagon Effect and The Effect of Sheep Flock

The influence of collective power makes football spread rapidly. When many people around are talking about football, many people who are not interested in football are more likely to follow suit and watch football in order to fit in with the group. This is a special kind of bandwagon effect. Bandwagon effect means that when an individual is influenced by a group (guided or pressured), he or she will doubt and change his or her own views, judgments and behaviors, and change in the direction consistent with the majority of the group, which is what we often call "following the crowd". Football has the largest playing field among the three major balls in the world, and a larger playing field means more spectators in the stadium. The shouting of fans will lead to the generation of depersonalized herd behavior.

Following the crowd can easily lead to riots. When the public's emotions are aroused and they cannot enjoy themselves like the athletes, once some football hooligans start to smash, loot and rob, many people will also follow suit and make trouble uncontrollably. This can be explained by the "herd effect" in psychology. The herd effect refers to the phenomenon that an individual's ideas or behaviors change in a direction consistent with the majority due to the influence or pressure of a real or imagined group , especially the influence of the "leader" on the flock is huge. In the public's impression, sheep are often associated with "gentleness and obedience". Although the flock is a seemingly loose organization, once the leader moves in a certain direction, the other sheep will follow without thinking. In the process of watching the game, if rude behavior begins to appear, the behavior of many fans may easily develop in an uncivilized direction.

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There are three main reasons why fans are easily influenced by the group:

First , there is strength in numbers, and this strength will suppress individual selfishness, and at the same time, following the group's actions will reduce one's own responsibilities. As the saying goes, "the law does not hold the masses responsible."

2. Emotions are contagious . In a group, people are more easily influenced by the atmosphere.

3. Groups can easily lead individuals to make decisions that are completely contrary to their own personality. If some particularly honest fans accidentally join a group that does not follow the rules, they are likely to do something illegal under the influence of the group. This phenomenon is called "depersonalization" in psychology.

04 How to watch football rationally?

First of all, fans should strengthen their emotional control . When watching a game, you can reasonably regulate your emotions by taking deep breaths , avoid being overly excited or angry, and stay rational and calm. When you are emotional, take a deep breath into your abdomen and then exhale slowly. Calm your emotions and soothe your mood through the rhythm of your breathing. This will not only allow individuals to enjoy the game better, but also contribute to a harmonious atmosphere for watching the game.

Secondly, we should realize that although we may support different teams or stars, we are all football fans and share the same interests. We should respect and tolerate each other. Social Identity Theory believes that people will shape their behavior by identifying with a specific group or social identity . Therefore, we should advocate that all fans are representatives of civilized football watching and enhance their sense of identity with civilized football watching. People watching the game can realize that everyone is a fan and is interested in sports games. This will increase tolerance and understanding of each other and avoid excessive confrontation and conflict.

Finally, the management of places where fans gather to watch games should also pay attention to positive incentives and guidance. Positive incentives can be adopted, such as holding reward activities for civilized viewing and giving commendations, so that fans can get positive rewards and recognition in civilized viewing, thereby enhancing their motivation for civilized viewing. At the same time, according to the social cognitive theory in psychology: the individual's cognitive process is not only determined by the individual's internal psychological activities, but is also influenced by social factors. We should also carry out publicity and education through the media to enhance fans' awareness of civilized viewing and guide everyone to develop the habit of civilized viewing.

I hope all fans will have a pleasant Asian Cup schedule, watch the game rationally and have fun!

Author: Yi Yi, Master of Applied Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Reviewer: Tang Yicheng, editor of the National Psychological Service Grassroots Collaboration Network, deputy secretary-general of the Psychology Popularization Working Committee of the Chinese Psychological Society

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Produced by: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., China Science and Technology Publishing House (Beijing) Digital Media Co., Ltd.