Fair-weather or die-hard? The psychology of sports fans

Why do some people support a team through thick and thin while others are “fair-weather” fans?   

On the back of the Warriors loss last week and tomorrow's do or die match, Dr Dougal Sutherland digs into the idea of "BIRGers" and "CORFers". 

The foundational concept of BIRGing: Basking in Reflected Glory  

You see this in such behaviours as someone being more likely to wear team colours and strips after victories, talking about the wins a lot, and using phrases such as “we won". 

Psychologically, BIRGing seems to have at least two benefits for people:  

1. Enhanced self-esteem – people feel more successful through identifying with a winning team. 

2. Positive social identity – people feel stronger links to others in the same community. We all feel good and a sense of belonging when our team wins. In fact, research shows now that many people don’t feel like they merely support the team, they feel they are part of the wider team. It may be that COATing is a better description (Celebrating Our Accomplishment Together) than BIRG – the glory isn’t reflective, it’s ours!  

The opposite process is Cutting Off Reflected Failure (CORFing), which occurs when people psychologically distance themselves from a team after losses. The purpose of CORFing is largely protective. It helps people avoid damage to self-esteem when a valued group performs poorly.  

But not all fans are the same… 

Committed fans, those who’ve supported the Wahs through thick and thin tend to BIRG when the team wins, keep supporting the team after losses, and don’t usually CORF.  

Newer research identified a subgroup of fans who might be best described as “jumping on the bandwagon”. They still strongly identify with the team but believe the team deserves special recognition, are highly sensitive to threats or criticism, and need the team's success to validate themselves.  

They also tend to BIRG more after victories and CORF more after defeats than committed fans and seem to be more likely to engage in violence or other disruptive behaviour. 

This group has been labelled “collective narcissists”.  Fan bases with a high proportion of collective narcissists may be less stable because support fluctuates greatly with team performance.  

For sports organisations, having a winning team increases popularity and most clubs likely have committed fans and bandwagon jumpers. Building up a strong community/group feeling come rain or shine might help reduce the number of bandwagon jumpers and keep a more stable fan base. 

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