Fandom and Social Connection

I just learned about The Fandom and Social Connection Initiative and I’m intrigued. The idea is to study the possibility that sports fandom can be an antidote to the “connection recession,” as traditional “third places”—like churches, civic organizations, and bowling leagues—play a diminishing role in our lives. The researchers think their early findings suggest that sports fandom can motivate people to connect, including connecting across racial, economic, and political divides. Here’s an excerpt from this article, in which one of the studies is described: “In a computer survey, they presented participants with hypothetical “counter-partisans” — people who hold views on politics and culture starkly opposed to their own — and asked them to award a “bonus” to one or the other. If they knew one “counter-partisan” also rooted for their favorite team, that one got the “bonus” at rates that outstripped those for counter-partisans with a shared race or ethnicity, education, or home region.…