Summary: New brain-imaging research shows that soccer fans experience rapid shifts in reward and self-control circuits when their team wins or loses against a rival. Victories trigger heightened reward responses, while defeats suppress the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the brain region responsible for regulating emotion and behavior.
Highly fanatic fans show the strongest imbalance, offering a neural explanation for sudden emotional “flips” during high-stakes moments. These patterns may reflect broader mechanisms behind group identity, polarization, and real-world fanaticism.
Key Facts
- Reward Surges: Rival-team victories trigger strong activation of brain reward networks.
- Control Suppression: Rival defeats suppress dACC activity, reducing cognitive control.
- Fanaticism Effect: The most devoted fans show the most extreme brain-circuit imbalance.
Source: RSNA
Studying brain patterns in soccer fans, researchers found that certain circuit regions of the brain were activated while viewing soccer matches involving their favorite team, triggering positive and negative emotions and behaviors, according to a new study published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
The researchers say these patterns could apply to other types of fanaticism as well, and that the circuits are forged early in life.
Soccer is a global phenomenon, and its followers exhibit a broad spectrum of behaviors, from spectatorship to intense emotional engagement, providing a useful model for studying social identity and emotional processing in competitive situations.
Rivalries run deep in the history of sports, and fans can be very protective of their “home” team and favorite players.
These same fans run the gamut of emotions watching their team succeed or fail over the course of a game or match, cheering when they score or raging at a bad call. Soccer fans are known for their team loyalty and enthusiasm, particularly in Europe and South America.
“Soccer fandom provides a high-ecological-validity model of fanaticism with quantifiable life consequences for health and collective behavior,” said lead author Francisco Zamorano, biologist, Ph.D. in medical sciences at Clínica Alemana de Santiago and associate professor at Facultad de Ciencias para el Cuidado de la Salud, Universidad San Sebastián, Santiago, Chile.
“While social affiliation has been widely studied, the neurobiological mechanisms of social identity in competitive settings are unclear, so we set out to investigate the brain mechanisms associated with emotional responses in soccer fans to their teams’ victories and losses.”
For the study, researchers used functional MRI (fMRI)—a technique that measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow—to examine 60 healthy male soccer fans (20–45 years) of two historic rivals.
Fanaticism was quantified with the Football Supporters Fanaticism Scale, a 13-item scale that measures the fanaticism of football fans, assessing two sub-dimensions: “Inclination to Violence” and “Sense of Belongingness.”
Brain imaging data were acquired while participants watched 63 goal sequences from matches involving their favorite team, a rival or a neutral team. A whole-brain analysis was conducted to compare neural responses when participants viewed their favorite team scoring against an archrival (significant victory) versus when the archrival scored against their team (significant defeat), with control conditions for non-rival goals.
The fMRI results showed that brain activity changed when the fan’s team succeeded or failed.
“Rivalry rapidly reconfigures the brain’s valuation–control balance within seconds,” Dr. Zamorano said.
“With significant victory, the reward circuitry in the brain is amplified relative to non-rival wins, whereas in significant defeat the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)—which plays an important role in cognitive control—shows paradoxical suppression of control signals.”
Paradoxical suppression refers to the attempt to suppress a thought, feeling or behavior and it results in the opposite outcome.
Higher activation in the reward system regions occurred when participants’ teams scored against rivals versus non-rivals, suggesting in-group bonding and social identity reinforcement.
Dr. Zamorano notes that the effect is strongest in highly fanatic participants, predicting momentary self-regulatory failure precisely when identity is threatened and accounting for the puzzling ability of otherwise rational individuals to suddenly “flip” at matches.
“Clinically, the pattern implies a state-dependent vulnerability whereby a brief cooling-off or removal from triggers might permit the dACC/salience control system to recover,” he said.
“The same neural signature—reward up, control down under rivalry—likely generalizes beyond sport to political and sectarian conflicts.”
The neural results identify mechanisms which may inform communication, crowd management, and prevention strategies around high-stakes events in the reward amplification and control down-regulation under rivalry, Dr. Zamorano noted.
“Studying fanaticism matters because it reveals generalizable neural mechanisms that can scale from stadium passion to polarization, violence and population-level public-health harm,” he said.
“Most importantly, these very circuits are forged in early life: caregiving quality, stress exposure, and social learning sculpt the valuation–control balance that later makes individuals vulnerable to fanatic appeals.
“Therefore, protecting childhood is the most powerful prevention strategy. Societies that neglect early development do not avoid fanaticism; they inherit its harms.”
Soccer fandom offers an ethical, high-validity proxy to time-lock these processes in the brain and to test interventions (framing, fairness cues, event design, crowd management, etc.) that translate to politics, sectarianism and digital tribalism, he noted.
Dr. Zamorano adds that urgency is evident with today’s global conflicts and political narratives. For example, he said the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol assault, demonstrated how political fanaticism can override democratic norms when identity fusion reaches critical mass.
“The participants showed classic signs of compromised cognitive control, exactly what our study found in the reduced dACC activation,” Dr. Zamorano said.
“In short, investigating fanaticism is not merely descriptive—it is developmentally informed prevention that protects public health and strengthens democratic cohesion. When we discuss fanaticism, the facts speak for themselves.”
Key Questions Answered:
A: Victories amplify reward circuits, while defeats suppress cognitive control regions like the dACC.
A: High fanaticism intensifies reward surges and control drops, creating a brief vulnerability to impulsive behavior.
A: Yes. The same reward-up, control-down signature may underlie political and sectarian fanaticism.
About this neuroscience research news
Author: Linda Brooks
Source: RSNA
Contact: Linda Brooks – RSNA
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Closed access.
“Brain Mechanisms across the Spectrum of Engagement in Football Fans: A Functional Neuroimaging Study” by Francisco Zamorano et al. Radiology
Abstract
Brain Mechanisms across the Spectrum of Engagement in Football Fans: A Functional Neuroimaging Study
Background
Football (also called soccer) is a global phenomenon, and its followers exhibit a broad spectrum of behaviors, from spectatorship to intense emotional engagement, providing a useful model for studying social identity and emotional processing in competitive contexts. Although social affiliation has been widely studied, the neurobiological mechanisms of social identity in competitive settings are unclear.
Purpose
To investigate the brain mechanisms associated with emotional responses in football fans to their teams’ victories and losses via functional MRI.
Materials and Methods
This prospective study was conducted from April 2019 to October 2022 and included healthy male football fans who underwent brain functional MRI. On the basis of Football Supporters Fanaticism Scale scores, the participants were classified as spectators, fans, or fanatics. Functional neuroimaging data were acquired while participants watched 63 goal sequences from matches involving their favorite team, a rival, or a neutral team.
A whole-brain analysis was performed using a general linear model to compare neural responses when the participant’s favorite team scored against an archrival (significant victory) versus when the archrival scored against their team (significant defeat), with control conditions for nonrival goals. Multiple comparison corrections were performed using cluster correction using random field theory.
Results
Sixty-one male football followers aged 20–45 years participated in this study. Whole-brain analysis of blood oxygenation level–dependent signal intensity and cluster-level correction revealed that significant victory was associated with increased activation in the ventral striatum, medial prefrontal cortex, and fusiform face area, reflecting reward processing and social identity reinforcement.
Significant defeat was associated with increased activation of the mentalizing network, visual areas, and precuneus, with lower activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, suggesting changes in cognitive control and emotional regulation.
Conclusion
Football followers demonstrated activation in regions of the brain’s reward system when their team scored against rival teams compared with other teams, reflecting in-group bonding and reinforcement of social identity.
