Members in the Media
From: U.S. News & World Report

Sports Fans Remember Victories Better Than Defeats: Study

U.S. News & World Report:

You’re more likely to remember the games that your favorite teams win rather than the ones they lose, a new study says.

It included almost 1,600 baseball fans who followed or attended the 2003 and 2004 American League Championship baseball games between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.

When questioned years later, fans of both teams remembered more details about their teams’ wins than their losses, including the location of the games, winning and losing pitchers and whether the games went extra innings.

The study is published in the October issue of the journal Psychological Science.

“People seem to remember positive events, not necessarily because of the experience, but because it is rehearsed more — we think about and share the experience instead of dwelling on the negative,” Martin Safer, a psychologist at the Catholic University of America, said in a journal news release.

Read the whole story: U.S. News & World Report

More of our Members in the Media >


APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.

Please login with your APS account to comment.