The appeal of the underdog

Posted by Ricki Sharpe on December 21, 2007  
Filed Under General

When it comes to competitive situations such as sports, elections, international conflicts and company takeovers, people are often drawn to the side that is seen as disadvantaged or unlikely to prevail. Why is it that we prefer to support underdogs and find them so appealing?

In a series of four studies, researchers from the University of South Florida tested the scope of people’s support for those who are expected to lose, seeking to understand why people are drawn to the Rocky Balboas and the Davids (versus Goliaths) of the world.

  1. Given two countries with differing expectations for success at the Olympics, people are more often drawn to the country with lower expectations.
  2. Support for either Israel or Palestine can be shaped by manipulating who is perceived to be the underdog.
  3. In basketball, underdogs are perceived as having less ability than favoured competitors, but as giving greater effort.
  4. In a hypothetical game, the team with a low probability of success is labelled as an underdog unless it has greater resources than an opponent.

The present studies suggest that situations of competitive inequality arouse our sense of fairness and justice – important principles to most people. In the absence of salient information, we will favour the underdog.

Although we believe that underdogs are less capable, we nevertheless believe they try harder. However, our favourable evaluation disappears when the underdog status no longer applies, such as when people are expected to lose but have a lot of available resources.

Reference

Vandello, J. A., Goldschmied, N. P. & Richards, D. A. R. (2007.) The appeal of the underdog. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1603-1616.

(A copy of the original paper is available free from Sage Publications here.)


Print This Article Print This Article

Similar Posts

Tags

.

Comments

Leave a Reply