Why Do We watch sports?

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Why Do We watch sports?

Why do we love to watch watching sports? Even though we’re not really contributing?

Is it the feeling that I’m right? Maybe, my team, is superiority makes me feel the same about my self? Is it the need to identify ourselves with the winners? Does watching sport causes the same effect on us as playing sports? triggers hormones? do we relate? Or is it learning by observing techniques? And why the majority are MEN?

We’re All Just Big Children

You see, watching sports gives us a perfect, safe and secure, black and white, little microcosm of life. Following a player, team or game allows us to experience ups and downs and a whole array of emotions, just like in real life, but we aren’t actually affected.

And unlike life, sports and games are generally fair! There are rules and a crystal clear framework, or paradigm that all the participants and spectators know about. There are never any monkey wrenches thrown into a sports game, like the rules changing mid-game for instance. If rules are broken, the offender is penalized. They don’t frustratingly get away sometimes like in real life.

Watching sports allows us a temporarily safe and socially acceptable way to be more like our true nature, and our true nature is frighteningly childlike.

It’s like watching a horror movie !! They provide a safe way for people to experience high levels of suspension without actually being in any real danger. Sports can be the same way. Again, watching sports allows us to enter a perfect world where the suspenseful outcome has no bearing on our real lives (unless you have a nasty sports gambling problem of course).

Whether you want to believe it or not, humans are a lot closer to nature and the animal world than most people like to think.

Our basic flight or fight mentality is manifested in sports. We can relate, on some deeper and unconscious level, with the guy running with the football towards the end zone and being chased by a pack of angry men. We can understand what it feels like to check another player in hockey and slam him into the boards. Or we can sympathize with the NASCAR driver who gets passed by a competitor but throws it into a higher gear and chases after him.

Our primitive desire for dominance is represented in sports. When our team wins, we experience a sort of dominance over the opposing team and their fans.

One of the main reasons people like to watch competitions is because they tend to identify themselves with the winners.