From Fan to Fat? Vicarious Losing Increases Unhealthy Eating, but Self-Affirmation Is an Effective Remedy
Abstract
Using archival and experimental data, we showed that vicarious defeats experienced by fans when their favorite football team loses lead them to consume less healthy food. On the Mondays following a Sunday National Football League (NFL) game, saturated-fat and food-calorie intake increase significantly in cities with losing teams, decrease in cities with winning teams, and remain at their usual levels in comparable cities without an NFL team or with an NFL team that did not play. These effects are greater in cities with the most committed fans, when the opponents are more evenly matched, and when the defeats are narrow. We found similar results when measuring the actual or intended food consumption of French soccer fans who had previously been asked to write about or watch highlights from victories or defeats of soccer teams. However, these unhealthy consequences of vicarious defeats disappear when supporters spontaneously self-affirm or are given the opportunity to do so.
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Psychological threat can increase appetite for sugary and high-fat comfort foods.
“More generally, psychological threat can increase appetite for sugary and high-fat comfort foods”
From The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention (2014) · cites this paper as Cornil & Chandon 2013
Cites
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The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention
Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2014) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115137 · Cited by 1,197 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Cornil, Y., & Chandon, P.
- Affiliations
- INSEAD (FR)
- ORCID
- Chandon, Pierre
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-08-07
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1936-1946
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2142915205
- Cited by
- 116
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 174.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sports, Gender, and Society
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Keywords
- sports fans, football, soccer, unhealthy diet, saturated fat intake, dietary intake, self-affirmation, emotional contagion, team performance, fan commitment
- MeSH terms
- Achievement, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Energy Intake, Dietary Fats, Emotions, Feeding Behavior, Female, Humans, Hyperphagia, Male, Regression Analysis, Self Concept, Social Identification, Sports, Health Behavior
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