Soccer makes fans unhappy

The distress of a loss might be acute, but perhaps it is outweighed by the overall benefits of fandom

Many people feel devastated after their favourite team loses. Sometimes they have trouble sleeping. That raises some legitimate questions: Why suffer? Is it even rational to be a sports fan? Recent research suggests that it might not be. On average, soccer, the most popular sport on the planet, makes people a lot less happy. The lesson is that if you’re strongly attached to your local team, you might be better off if you decide to disengage — starting right now.

Peter Dolton and George MacKerron of the University of Sussex linked several large data sets. To measure people’s happiness, they used