Why do US sports fans riot after a win? The science behind Philadelphia’s Super Bowl chaos
‘They can’t throw a football 60 yards like the quarterback can, but they can throw a rock through the window... it becomes their feat of strength and skill’
Fires in the streets. Smashed windows. Flipped cars. Light poles toppled by alcohol-fuelled crowds. Philadelphia awoke Monday after the triumph of Super Bowl Sunday to a city in disarray and this vexing question: What is it about sports that makes fans riot?
Why do fans care so intensely about their teams? What is going on in their brains after a win or loss? What circumstances make a riot more likely?
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For years, psychologist and sociologist have studied this phenomenon of sports fan violence and have found some interesting answers. Researchers attribute violent behaviour to a heady mixture of factors: Intense fan identification with a team, how behaviour changes when people become part of a mob, and strong psychological and physiological responses when your team wins or loses.
Police officers lead an Eagles fan away as they clean an intersection in northeast Philadelphia early on Monday. Photo: EPA
When do fans most often tend to riot?
People do things in crowds they would not do alone...People make poor decisions in crowds
Jason Lanter, a psychology professor at Kutztown University
Sports fan violence occurs all over the world, but the American fan is unusual in a few ways. Unlike European soccer hooliganism, in which fans of opposing teams often hurt each other, fan rioting in America is usually limited to vandalism, or violence directed at inanimate objects, notes Jeffrey Lewis, a Kent State University sociologist who has spent decades studying fan violence.
