Study finds football fan rituals can create emotional mob mentality
Football fans get more emotional in pre-match rituals than during the actual game, suggests new research.
The study of Brazilian football supporters showed that the intense feelings of joy, unity and excitement that fans experience can be less about the game and more about coming together.
The only time fans' emotions exceeded the "high" of the pre-match gathering was when their team scored a goal, according to the findings.
The study was led by Dimitris Xygalatas, a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut and a lifelong soccer fan.
Xygalatas says that when his hometown team PAOK won the Greek Super League for the first time in 34 years in 2019, he cried tears of joy, adding: "Not what you might call a rational organism's behavior."
But his emotional reaction was in keeping with the findings of the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Xygalatas said: "Rituals are the kinds of things that, at first glance, don't make any sense in terms of human behavior, but are deeply meaningful to people."
With the cooperation of die-hard Brazilian footie fans, Xygalatas and his team tracked the physiological arousal of fans before, during, and after a state championship final in Minas Gerais between local rival clubs.
Using wearable heart monitors, they measured the emotional reactions of fans during the ritual of Rua de Fogo - "Street of Fire" - during which crowds gather near the stadium to welcome the team's bus.
As it arrives, fans light flares, smoke bombs, and fireworks, wave flags, and chant to boost team morale and unify supporters.
The research team fitted participants with EKG monitors hidden beneath their clothing.
The devices measured heart rate fluctuations, which is an indicator of emotional arousal, as fans participated in the pre-game celebration, entered the stadium, and watched the match unfold.
The research team found that the levels of shared excitement, or what the scientists call "collective effervescence," peaked not during the match itself, but during the pre-game fan rituals.
Only when the home team scored a goal did the physiological markers exceed the emotional high of the pre-match gathering.
Xygalatas said, "What we see is that, in fact, the pre-game ritual generates more emotional synchrony than the game itself.
"There's a single moment in the entire game when they have more collective emotional synchrony than the pre-game ritual, and that's when they scored a goal."
The findings underscore Xygalatas' broader work to understand how ritual shapes human behavior and identity.
He said, "Rituals are the kinds of things that, at first glance, don't make any sense in terms of human behavior, but are deeply meaningful to people."
His previous research has taken him to remote firewalking ceremonies and intense religious festivals.
But he said football offers a "unique laboratory" as it's a "global obsession" that's rich in ritual and pageantry, but largely free from political or religious ideology.
The physiological data from the new study showed that the ritualistic gathering that happens before a ball is even kicked produced "sustained arousal levels" comparable to the game itself.
Xygalatas said, "People attribute a lot of meaning to sports.
"Sports generate billions and billions of dollars globally, and they take up so much of people's attention.
"And the reason they do that is not just because of what's happening on the pitch. It's because of these ritualized interactions that occur among the fans."
He says the implications of the findings may extend beyond sports as ritualized group behaviors, such as concerts, religious ceremonies, or political rallies, may "powerfully shape" people's emotions and even their beliefs.
Xygalatas said, "By going to these events, we're actually shaping our beliefs.
"So sports is not just an excuse for people to get together. It's a driver of identity."
He recalled, as a young man growing up in Thessaloniki, Greece, how one day he was wearing his team's scarf in the wrong neighborhood when he was ambushed by four men and brutally attacked.
Xygalatas said the incident echoes the fatal beating of a 19-year-old in his hometown years later, also over team allegiance.
He said: "I felt a blow to my head from behind, and next thing I knew, there were four men beating me, kicking me on the head, everywhere.
"The reason I was able to escape is that another group of men was turning the corner, wearing my insignia, so they chased them away."
Xygalatas says football is the only sport that regularly leads to deadly violence, a fact that leagues and governing bodies such as FIFA should take seriously.
He says it's in the best interest of clubs to strike a balance between building loyalty, which Europeans and South Americans are excellent at doing, and making it safe for people to participate in.
However, Xygalatas is not advocating for less passion and he hopes his work helps people understand why they care so deeply in the first place.
He added: "If we look at what makes us human, we realize that it's our ability and our need to derive meaning from things that seem meaningless."
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