Ticket prices for professional sporting events are lower than conventional economic theory would predict. One possible explanation for this anomaly is that lower ticket prices encourage attendance at future games, thanks to habit formation or “addictive” behavior among fans.
A new study published in Contemporary Economic Policy examines this behavior among American and Korean baseball fans, and finds that this theory successfully predicts this behavior in American (but not Korean) baseball fans. It suggests that this habit formation may be rooted in the basic interaction of culture and human nature.
“Many behaviors exhibited by sports fans (conspicuous allegiance to the team, changes in mood and behavior after a win, disdain for fans of the opposing team, and congregation in groups to watch the game, to name a few) would have made a lot of sense in the pre-industrial world in which humans presumably evolved,” say authors Young H. Lee and Trenton G. Smith. “The community allegiance exhibited by sports fans, for instance, would have provided both camaraderie and mutual aid in times of need.”
The study finds significant evidence for this “naturalistic” theory in research from a variety of different fields. Studies of the testosterone levels in sports fans, for instance, are consistent with a naturalistic theory of team identification, while anthropological studies have posited that the innate tendency of human beings to identify with groups may reflect the importance of inter-group conflict in human history.
Significant differences between American and foreign culture and sports media are identified by the study, which suggests that these differences may explain the disparity in fan behavior. “Korean fans do not tend to gather in bars to watch games, and since games are broadcast nationally, they are free from local-commentator bias,” say the authors.
“Our theory of habit formation represents an important scientific contribution not only for the theory of sports demand, but also for the economic theory of habitual consumption, which has historically focused on the dynamic implications of habit formation, rather than attempting to predict when and where habit formation is likely to be important ,” say the authors. -Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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