We're All Habs; Influence of the Canadiens in Montreal

Early October means only one thing for a Canadian: hockey season. The long hot summer, from June to late September, deprives us of our raison d'être, the Montreal Canadiens. Once the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge, or the Habs, as they're intimately called, hit the ice, the city changes. Suddenly Habs flags dot the streets, attached to every other car. Across the city pictures of players take up ad space. Local news always had team updates so that avid fans can listen to every single occurrence coming out of the locker room. The franchise is 100 years old so its ties to the city run incredibly deep.

When the Habs win you can sense it. The general demeanor of the city is joyful. People are more gracious in crowded areas, more courteous in traffic, bouncers and bartenders at clubs are friendlier and cops give out less speeding tickets. The reverse is true as well, if the Habs go on a losing streak, we tend to become more depressed and hostile. How is it that a sport, a game, has the ability to elicit such strong behavior and emotions from people who did not even play?

Sports fans behavior has been thoroughly studied in psychology. The chief theory attributed to the strong reactions of fans to the outcome of their team is called social identity theory. Turner and Tjafel in 1986 developed Social identity theory which claims people are motivated to behave in ways that maintain and boost their self-esteem. To increase our self-esteem we must believe our group is the right or the best one. Sports can work to increase self-esteem for a person by association and affiliation, if we feel as though we are a part of the team; we bask in its success and cringe in its defeat.

Studies show strong feelings that your group is better than someone else's can lead to in-group bias, can alter your perception of yourself and others so strong they and can even lead violence. A study performed by Hirt and others in the early 90's found that, after a team loss, fans felt worse about themselves, their own abilities, and the team. Another study done in the early 90s found players of a hockey team that had lost rated their opponents as having played dirtier than themselves.

Study after study shows we are affected by what happens to our groups. In Montreal the group is the Habs and the members are the citizens of Montreal, roughly all 3 million of them. When they lose we're down, when they win we're hysteric. The reason why? Social Identity. What can we do? You can't help being mad, sad due to a loss or happy after a win, humans are social beings. Our social relationships to others make us who we are and shape our behavior, its how we've evolved. New research published this year shows the quality of ones social life can have larger effect on health than diet and exercise! Hopefully with an increased knowledge of the mechanics underlying our behavior and emotions some of the more extreme forms of fan craziness can hopefully be overcome and dismissed (fan violence being the first thing that comes to mind). So don't get too down when the Habs lose, but don't feel bad about feeling bad either, its natural. Go Habs go.