WVLT-TV Local 8 Now recently interviewed UT’s Garriy Shteynberg and Bill Fox about how a win or loss affects sports fans and how the outcome of games affect the economy.
Shteynberg, assistant professor of psychology, noted that the win or loss of a game could affect people’s emotion and their week.
“You feel that you’re part of the Tennessee team, where people quite literally feel like when the team loses, they lose,” he said. “They know they’re not playing the game but on a psychological level it’s as if they are playing the game–that we sink or swim together. ”
Fox, director of the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research, said that the success of a team can have an affect on businesses within the area of where a sports team plays.
“It does affect the perception of people in the city,” said Fox. “The more winning the program is, the more people will be at games and therefore the hotel rooms that are stayed in, the meals that are purchased go up with winning.” Read and watch the full story online.