Harvard Professor Arthur Brooks: “ The Knicks Just Made the Case for Sports Fandom”

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I have a friend with whom I exchange text messages a few times a week. We’re about the same age, are from the same hometown, and share strong religious convictions (though not the same religion). Our conversations are often philosophical and metaphysical. Two weeks ago, he was lamenting the evidence of falling spirituality among young people, and wrote this: “We’ve gained the whole world and have lost our souls.”

Heavy, man. A few seconds later, however, he followed with this: “At least the Knicks are crushing it.”

As we all know, the Knicks went on to win their first NBA finals since 1973 on Saturday night, making my friend even happier alongside millions of New Yorkers. From Brooklyn to Queens to the West Village to the Upper East Side, fans of all ages, races, and religions streamed onto the streets, hugging and high-fiving each other at random. Fire trucks honked along with chants; taxi cabs blasted “New York State of Mind”; and walkers whooped as they passed each other, for no other reason than the exhilarating experience they had just enjoyed together.

As a happiness specialist, one thing I have seen in the studies and data over the past decade is that sports fandom is one of life’s unalloyed sources of joy. In Fans Have More Friends, the sports writers Ben Valenta and David Sikorjak show that professed sports fans who have favorite teams are twice as likely to be “very happy” compared with nonfans, are far more likely to feel known, and are more grateful about life.

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Having a favorite team is especially beneficial for well-being -and even for the health of our democracy.

No doubt, you will cite many examples of unhealthy fandom-such as the examples of destruction Saturday night after the Knicks win.

But in my business, we would call these instances empirical irregularities.

The far more regular occurrence, according to recent data from the nonprofit More in Common, is that sports fans are much better citizens.

Compared to nonfans, they are on average more likely to be registered to vote (92 percent vs. 75 percent), ‹ participate in local elections (64 percent vs. 35 percent), support democratic norms (73 percent vs. 53 percent), donate blood (29 percent vs. 12 percent), and donate to a place of worship (43 percent vs. 18 percent).

So, do you want to unify America and make us better citizens? Then, get us cheering for our team and enjoying games together, regardless of other particular loyalties.

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