A study reveals that the collective emotion of football fans, and sport in general, reaches its peak not during the game, but in the rites that precede it.
When in 2019 the paok, his Heart team, finally won the championship Greek football, Professor Dimitris Xygalatas – anthropologist of the University of Connecticut, scientist and convinced rationalist – broke out in tears. “Not exactly the behavior of a rational organism,” jokes today. Yet that reaction is not only human, but is also perfectly in line with the results of his most recent research, published today in the magazine Pnas (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).
The study shows that the emotional peak of cheering is not during the game, but Beforein moments full of symbolism and adrenaline preceding the kick -off. In other words: The heart of cheering beats stronger in the rites that unite fans, not necessarily on the pitch.
La Rua de Fogo: where the collective ecstasy is born
To investigate this phenomenon, Xygalatas has chosen the Brazil And one of his football cradles: Minas Gerais. There, with the help of a group of irreducible fansmonitored the participants’ heartbeat during the final of the state championship between two rival teams. The data, collected with heart sensors hidden under the clothes, cover three phases: the rite of the Rua de Fogo (the “road of fire”) that precedes the game, entry into the stadium and the entire duration of the game itself.
During the Rua de Fogo thousands of fans They gather to welcome the team’s bus: smoke, choirsfireworks, flags and overwhelming energy frame a moment that – now we know with scientific certainty – generates a peak of “collective effervescence”, A shared emotion so intense as to overcome almost everything that happens later.
«The data show us that the maximum of emotional synchrony among the fans occurs before the game. Only the goal manages to overcome that level of shared excitement, “explains Xygalatas.
Football as a ritual laboratory
It is not the first time that Xygalatas studies the rites: in the past he followed ceremonies religious extreme (by the way: you think it is easier to change squad Or … religion?) How to walk on burning coal. But the soccerexplains, represents an ideal laboratory: it is global, very rich in rituals, and relatively neutral from a political and religious point of view.
«Apparently, these rites They make no sense from a rational point of view, “underlines the professor. “But they are essential to create identity And belonging».
And this is precisely what makes the cheering as powerful: It is not only the result that matters, but what the fans do together to feel part of something bigger. From choirs to raised scarves, from pre-match to post, cheering is a collective rite, a synchronized emotional experience.
From the rites to the clash
So what? So there may be a problem: it happens when theintensity of the “identification” exceeds a certain threshold and can turn into conflictas often remind us of some news articles. Xygalatas even tells a personal, dramatic episode, happened to him in his youth in Thessaloniki: he was attacked by four men because he wore his team’s scarf in the “wrong neighborhood”. “They struck me in my head and kicked. I only saved myself because another group of fans of my team arrived at that moment ».
According to him, football clubs should find a balance between building a relationship of loyalty of the fans – which Europeans and South American are already ahead – and guaranteeing the safety of people.
However, xygalatas is clear: it is not suggesting a more detached and rational attitude (indeed!), But simply, with its research, hopes to help people better understand the emotional and psychological roots of such a strong involvement.
