Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
A. It means that different team is accessible to you. B. Belonging to your favorite team stimulates your confidence. C. That identity is first and foremost. D. The more we follow a team, the deeper the bond becomes. E. In that sense, your favorite team can serve the same purpose as church and family: Fostering a sense of belonging. F. This refers to the inclination by fans to distance themselves from their team after a defeat. |
"Our research has shown that the No. 1 reason people become fans is that it's your connection to your first community," said Adam Earnhardt, chairman of the communications department at Youngstown State University and co﹣author of "Sports Fans, Identity and Socialization: Exploring the Fandemonium." "I don't care if a Seattle fan moves to China, he or she carries with them their love for the sports teams," he said. "(1) "
(2) . And when a team begins to catch fire, as with, say, the Mariners in '95 or the Seahawks of recent vintage, well, it's easy to get swept up in the wave.
"It's phenomenal," said Simons. "We have this ability to understand other people so remarkably that their victories literally become ours. Our testosterone(睾酮) literally responds to their victory. (3) They're us, and competing on a literal level as us a little extension of us."
Professor Robert Cialdini at Arizona State University came up with the term BIRG Basking In Reflected Glory to describe the intense pride fans feel when their teams succeed. It can be used as a verb, as in, "Seahawks fans are currently BIRGING up a storm." The counterpoint, as coined by researchers C.R. Snyder, Mary Anne Lassergard and Carol E, Ford, is the concept of CORFing Cutting Off Reflected Failure. (4) . We've all heard it in action: We won, but they lost.
This leads into another concept, that of cognitive bias, also known as confirmation bias, which causes fans to help explain away defeats by blaming outside factors, such as referees. I'm sure it would also help explain why Seahawks fans rallied around Richard Sherman after his postgame interview, rationalizing behavior that was widely criticized by many fans with no vested interest. It could also explain the notion of "eustress", invented by endocrinologist Hans Selye to refer to a combination of euphoria (极度愉快的心情) and stress, such as that resulting from watching tense sporting events. Indeed, it's much of the appeal.