This
is Your Brain on Sports: The Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and
What We Can learn from the T-Shirt Cannon- L Jon Wertheim and Sam Sommers
(Crown Archetype)
Quick show of hands…
1. When you refer to your favorite sports
team, do you use the pronoun “We” even if you now nor ever where a member of
said team? IE: “We need a touchdown” or “We need a defensive stop here.”
2. When your favorite team has a game versus a
rival, you’ve been known to evoke a visceral “hatred” for the opposition? IE:
“I hate the Dolphins” (or Patriots) if you are a long suffering Bills fan
3. Despite losing a (sad) record four straight
Super Bowls and not making a post season appearance in this century, you remain
a dedicated (or is it medicated) Bills fan and remember fondly the “good old
days of Kelly, Thurman, Bruce and Andre? But hey, at least they made it to four
straight!
So, what could possibly explain this seeming insanity?
That is at least in part what L Jon Wertheim, executive editor of Sports
Illustrated and Sam Sommers, a psychologist and sports fan attempt to explain
in This is Your Brain on Sports: The
Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and What We Can learn from the
T-Shirt Cannon.
Wertheim and Sommers serve up some easily relatable,
nod your head things, that sports fans will find difficult to deny they
“suffer” from. This is Your Brain on
Sports is at turns very funny, in an admittedly sad sort of way, and also
nudges up against the at times scary.
The pair hit it right on the head in the chapter about
the participation trophy world that we find ourselves in. They make the right
point, that it’s never a bad thing to offer praise to our kids, but it is fair
to question exactly what form that praise takes. Guess what, it’s okay to
lose…just ask a Bills fan.
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