Fans: How Watching Sports Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Understanding

There are thousands of books about sports. This book is about sports fans. Using fascinating new studies on sports fandom, Fans makes the sometimes counterintuitive case that more you identify with a sports team, the better your social, psychological and physical health is, the more meaningful your relationships are, the more connected and happier you are, and even the more optimistic. Spectators maintain better cognitive processing as their gray matter ages; they have better language skills; college students who are sports fans have higher GPAs, better graduation rates, and higher incomes after graduating. Sports fan are more charitable. The fact that you are a fan makes it more likely that you are also a participant--sports fans exercise more and are healthier.

And there's more: On a societal level, sports help us heal after tragedies like 9/11 and the Las Vegas mass shooting, providing community and hope when we need it most. Even now, the greatly altered games we're watching during the COVID-19 pandemic provide socially distanced joy. This book is a passionate reminder of how these games, these teams, and the communities dedicated to them are vital in our lives. With lively line drawings throughout, Fans is the perfect gift for anyone who loves sports or anyone who loves someone who loves sports.