People love to watch sports. The Superbowl, for example, is incredibly popular. About 111 million people, a third of everyone in the united states, watched the Superbowl in 2017. What is about our psychology that makes us love sports? Why do we tend to idolize individual players? Are we learning something when we watch sports? Find out all this and more on this episode of Minding the Brain! Explore further: 5 Reasons Why Humans Can’t Do Without Sports http://nautil.us/blog/5-reasons-why-humans-cant-do-without-sports Beliefs in symbolic catharsis: The importance of involvement with aggressive sports https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233642306_Beliefs_in_symbolic_catharsis_The_importance_of_involvement_with_aggressive_sports The Role of Uncertainty of Outcome and Scoring in the Determination of Fan Satisfaction in the NFL https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1527002510376789 Testosterone changes during vicarious experiences of winning and losing among fans at sporting events https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031938498001474 Examining the superstitions of sport fans: Types of superstitions, perceptions of impact, and relationship with team identification https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288259527_Examining_the_superstitions_of_sport_fans_Types_of_superstitions_perceptions_of_impact_and_relationship_with_team_identification What do men want? Gender differences and two spheres of belongingness: comment on Cross and Madson https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9204778 Using sex and gender role orientation to predict level of sport fandom https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292719936_Using_sex_and_gender_role_orientation_to_predict_level_of_sport_fandom Motivational Profiles of Sport Fans of Different Sports Motivational Profiles of Sport Fans of Different Sports https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265266108_Motivational_Profiles_of_Sport_Fans_of_Different_Sports_Motivational_Profiles_of_Sport_Fans_of_Different_Sports Using sport fandom as an escape: Searching for relief from under-stimulation and over-stimulation http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/11913231/using-sport-fandom-as-escape-searching-relief-from-under-stimulation-over-stimulation