“Democrats and Republicans operate much in the same way.” “People saw more bias when their team was under attack,” she said. In an interview with Virginia Tech’s news department, Duncan said that the ways fans perceive news about their team that they don’t like are similar to how both Democrats and Republicans view news about their parties that they don’t like.

It also affects how you take in information.Īccording to a 2018 study written by Megan Duncan, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech, Michael Mirer of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Michael Wagner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, fans perceive news that accuses their team of wrongdoing as biased, even if they trust the source of the information. And that lunacy isn’t confined to times when your team loses a game it’s not only manifest as hatred of a rival. Sports can bring out the very best of humanity, but sports can also make happy, well-adjusted people - human beings with jobs and dogs and kids and hobbies - lose their minds. Or, maybe you’re such a rabid Alabama fan that you responded to a loss against Auburn, your biggest rival, in January 2011 by driving to Auburn’s campus and poisoning the school’s legendary live oaks. Maybe you’re a Liverpool fan and the mere existence of Manchester United drives you insane. If you are a sports fan, there is likely a team you support - and then another you loathe. My sports-based hatred for the entity that is Michigan State University is pure but not uncommon. Hate for a sports rival is like falling in love: It exists beyond reason. I delight in their sports failings, relish their sports pain when they, say, lose to a 15 seed in the NCAA tournament. And more important, I try not to hold hate in my heart, even for my enemies.īut when it comes to sports there’s no other real way to express the depth of disdain I have for the rivals of my alma mater, the University of Michigan. I try not to use it in normal conversation. I hate its color scheme, its fight song, I even hate the name of that wretched institution, two words once so innocuous but now rendered so horrifying: “Michigan” and “State.” I hate its historically inaccurate mascot (the Spartans, who, let’s not forget, lost at Thermopylae). I hate its football team, its basketball team, its volleyball team, its campus.

I hate mountains 2