COLUMBUS – When your favorite college football team wins a big game, you will probably enjoy a boost in self-esteem that lasts at least two days, but Ohio State University researchers say, if your team loses, you may feel a slump but it won’t be a big one.
The key for fans of both teams may be the positive effects of watching the game with friends. Those who watched the game socially had the highest average self-esteem the day after, followed by those who didn’t watch the game, while those who watched by themselves scored lowest, said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, co-author of the study.
“Just feeling connected to others while watching the game helped sustain self-esteem,” said Knobloch-Westerwick, a professor of communication at OSU.
The study involved 174 students from Ohio State and Michigan State universities, who participated right before and after a key football game on Nov. 21, 2015, when the ninth-ranked Spartans beat the third-ranked Buckeyes 17-14 on a field goal as time expired.
The day after the game, Knobloch-Westerwick says the happy Michigan State students had significantly higher levels of self-esteem, which went up even higher on Monday while self-esteem levels didn’t change much for the Ohio State students, though their mood suffered a significant drop on Saturday and a small further dip on Monday.
The study appears online in the journal Communication & Sport and will be published in a future print edition.