Happy? Ask Me After the Game: How Consumer Moods Are Impacted by the Performance of Their Favorite Team

For many a dedicated sports fan, how their favorite team performs is not only an emotional roller coaster on game day, but can impact their overall mood. Wins can bring joy, while losses can lead to frustration or even depression. With the Super Bowl approaching, emotions are running high for many fans, as the anticipation of victory or the sting of defeat could shape their overall mood for days.

But just how many people are affected by their team’s performance?

In our recent wave of research-on-research, we wanted to better understand this question. Let’s dive into what we uncovered.

Overall

Only 15% of respondents reported that their favorite team’s performance has a significant or major impact on their mood, while 39% indicated a minor or moderate impact. Nearly a quarter (23%) felt no impact at all.

Gender

Men are nearly twice as likely as women to report a strong emotional impact from their team’s performance, with 20% of men falling into the top-2-box category compared to just 10% of women. Overall, 64% of men have some sort of emotional impact from their favorite team’s performance., whereas only 44% of women do.

Age

Sports fandom and emotional investment appear to shift across different age groups. Younger fans tend to be more emotionally engaged with their teams, with 17% of those aged 18-24 and 20% of those aged 25-34 reporting strong emotional impacts. These numbers decline as age increases, with only 7% of respondents aged 65+ feeling similarly.

Additionally, older age groups are less likely to follow a favorite team at all. Those aged 65+ were the most disengaged, with 35% reporting they do not follow a favorite team, compared to just 16% of those aged 25-34.

Income

Income influences the extent to which sports affect emotions. Those earning $100,000 or more were the most likely to report a strong emotional impact, compared to only 11% of those earning $20,000-$39,999. Lower-income respondents were also likelier to not follow a favorite team, with 31% of those earning under $20,000 indicating they do not engage with sports in this way, compared to just 17% of the highest-income earners.

Ethnicity

Examining the data by ethnicity found some interesting results. African American respondents had the strongest emotional connection, with 22% reporting a strong impact, compared to 13% of Caucasian respondents. However, Asians have the highest overall emotional impact, with 68% having some form of impact.

Region

Sports fandom varies by region, but not drastically. The Northeast shows the highest percentage of emotionally invested fans, while the Midwest, South, and West hover around 14–15%. The West, however, has the highest percentage (43%) of those with a minor or moderate impact indicating a large group of engaged, yet not profoundly affected, fans.

Panel

There were some apparent differences when we looked at the data by panel. Respondents from Panel H showed the highest emotional engagement and respondents from Panel O the lowest. The percentage of respondents experiencing at least mild impact ranged from 35% (Panel O) to 47% (Panel E).

This data reinforces the importance of strategically blending your panel sources to ensure you capture accurate insights and that individual panels do not skew them. You can learn more about EMI’s unique Strategic Sample Blending approach by clicking the button below.