http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/31963832 "The best way to be as a fan is to have the maximum emotional investment in a team but the least expectation of success, because that's what rules the dopamine release." Explains why many of the sorry sods on here seems to always tip us to lose. Getting a weekly dopamine fix!
I used to think we got far more pleasure out of a win than teams like United did...when I first started watching Saints. I am strangely more worried now Saints are a more successful PL side...this increase in fear must mean we are a big side now. I have only been to SMS once this season and can scarcely watch us on TV...usually turn off second half. This does support the view that it is more pleasurable to have low expectations.
Seems logical. Bear with this idea... It is often said that people are at their happiest when they have nothing. [nothing being a relative term. One has to be without the major worries too] When a person acquires a lot of money through hard work, in order to protect it they work harder to earn more, and so on until they forget what their priorities are. The result is, the richer they get through hard work the less happy they become, because they have to protect what they have with more. In a sense, we've banked a lot of progress, and to protect it, nothing less than a win will do. There were times in my Saints supporting life when drawing with say... ManU was enough for ecstasy to erupt. Now that is becoming the least requirement, not the bonus. Different circumstances and scenario, but not dissimilar consequences. Would I go back to before..? No way. I love it like this. Presumably relatively unhappy millionaires feel a similar way.
Interesting philosophy here. Just to flip it, the more successful we have become, the more it hurts when we lose. When losing was the norm and winning was a bonus, it wasn't so bad. I've always said that it is not the despair but the hope that gets you in the end.
Why are they sorry sods......? Surely it would depend on how long you have been a Saints fan as to how you would view matches? We have been so up and down over the years and so very unpredictable it has made some people afraid to expect success. It doesn't make them any less of a fan though just a shade pessimistic. When we win they are the first to applaud even though for them it wasn't expected. I wouldn't like to be a United fan or a Chelsea fan and expect to win every week because they get so upset when the unexpected happens. That to me would be very boring. A team like Saints can achieve great results and I get the greatest pleasure from them doing just that....the unexpected.
I don't think it's the winning or expectation of winning or losing... it's the being a part of something.
Undoubtedly, the last 5 years [with many, many years to come] have been the best time to be a Saints supporter for 30 years or so. Arguably, this is the best time ever because this particular ascent in the club's fortunes is so well founded.
