Study reveals NFL's most 'unstable' fan base -- any guesses?

[ratso]

Study reveals NFL's most 'unstable' fan base -- any guesses?
Jen Slothower, NESN
FOX Sports

DEC 16, 2013 2:03p ET


An Emory University study has confirmed what many people have long purported: Football fans --€” and especially the ones rooting for the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers or Oakland Raiders -- are an unstable group.

Marketing professors Michael Lewis and Manish Tripathi devised an algorithm and analyzed data to try to figure out how various fan bases deal with losses, and their study found that fans of the Raiders, Steelers and Patriots do not cope well. Researchers turned to Twitter to track fan responses to games, using their algorithm to label tweets as positive or negative and then trace the swing of emotions, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Some of the fan bases that responded the most negatively after losses were also the most positive after wins, giving them a high ranking on the study'€™s list of "€œunstable"€ franchises. For example, tweets from Steelers fans were 79.6 percent positive following wins in 2012, but just 33.1 percent of tweets were positive following a loss. That 46.5 percent gap made the Steelers the second most unstable fan base, following the Raiders'€™ 47 percent margin.

In contrast, the gap for Dallas Cowboys fans was just 4.8 percent. That made them the most "€œstable"€ fans, followed by the Colts, Eagles, Texans and Falcons, who perhaps have reduced expectations.

The Patriots ranked third on both the list of unstable fan bases and saddest fan bases after a loss. They did not make the happiest fan base list, which was led by the Saints (92.1 percent positive tweets after a win), Browns, Raiders, Seahawks and Bears.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/stud ... ses-121613

 

[getnasty]

The Browns one of the happiest fan bases?

 

[uncle fester]

The Browns one of the happiest fan bases?

Valium.

 

[Popeyejones]

The finding is that Steelers fans who use Twitter have the largest differential between happiness and unhappiness in wins versus losses.

It's reasonable to label this as "unstable," but also reasonable to label this as "passionate."

Basically, with the same finding one could COMPLETELY change the interpretation of the finding by producing the headline "Steelers the most unstable fanbase" or "Steelers the most passionate fanbase."

Kinda funny.

 

[Scottemojo]

The finding is that Steelers fans who use Twitter have the largest differential between happiness and unhappiness in wins versus losses.

It's reasonable to label this as "unstable," but also reasonable to label this as "passionate."

Basically, with the same finding one could COMPLETELY change the interpretation of the finding by producing the headline "Steelers the most unstable fanbase" or "Steelers the most passionate fanbase."

Kinda funny.

Combine that with the 25000 empty seats at Heinz for a prime time game and dropping the passionate label becomes very easy.

 

[Throwdown]

We're one of the happys?

 

[Scottemojo]

We're one of the happys?

I know! I was shocked.

Good thing the study wasn't based on game day chats and threads.

 

[lsheldon]

Yes, basing a study off of twitter posts is very scientific and represents a complete sampling of a fan base. I could have guessed that the Raiders and Squeelers fan bases would have been at the top. What a joke...

 

[Popeyejones]

Yes, basing a study off of twitter posts is very scientific and represents a complete sampling of a fan base.

FWIW I'd be SHOCKED if the authors didn't acknowledge that Twitter users aren't a representative sample of the fandom population. Everyone who uses twitter data includes this clause. It's a problem in the translation for a mainstream publication whose readers don't care a rat about that level of detail, if the reporter even understands it in the first place.

So, like all data, it is incredibly far from perfect, but that doesn't make it useless, as there's not really another method of data collection that improves on the time/money/statistical power trifecta for an ultimately pointless and pretty silly question like this.

 

[sutz]

Does anyoone who is stable actually use Twitter?

 

[UK_Seahawk]

Does anyoone who is stable actually use Twitter?

This. Anyone who feels constantly compelled to tell random people when they last had a shit in "140 characters or less" (surely that will be a movie title one day) isnt a representative example of humankind.

 

[mikeak]

Considering the meltdown threads as Seahawks has been winning we should be both steadiest and most unstable at the same time....

 

[Trenchbroom]

The Browns one of the happiest fan bases?

Valium.

The wins come so sporadically...who's to criticize?