Why Sports Fans Love an Underdog
by Dan Holmes,
October 28, 2025
The appeal of the underdog extends far beyond a desire for novelty. When an unheralded opponent challenges a dynasty, fans often project their own aspirations onto the contest. The potential emotional payoff is immense; a loss is expected, but a victory delivers a powerful, vicarious thrill that a favorite’s predictable win cannot. This triumph validates a deeply held belief: that effort and heart can, in fact, overcome a sheer talent deficit, rebalancing the scales of fairness.
Why Underdogs Make Us Happy
According to research by Nadav Goldschmied, the desire to root for the underdog stems from a deep-seated sense of fairness. Fans often perceive a disparity in resources and status between opponents. Supporting the team expected to lose is a way of correcting this injustice. A study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that people attribute more effort to underdogs, and this mediates their liking. An underdog’s victory isn’t just a surprise; it feels like a just reward.
- The Psychology of Justice
- The Economics of Expectation
- Identity and Self-Reflection
- The Narrative Power of Effort
The magnetic pull of the underdog is one of sport’s most potent forces. It compels neutral observers to choose a side and transforms mundane contests into dramas. This phenomenon transcends contrarianism; it is a complex psychological event rooted in our deepest notions of justice, effort, and self-identity.
Consider your own allegiances and share the moments that cemented your love for the long shot; the psychology behind it is more telling than you think.
The Psychology of Justice
To understand the appeal, we must first define what is an underdog. It is not merely the team with a lesser record but a symbol of profound asymmetry. This imbalance can be in talent, financial resources, historical prestige, or media attention. The favorite represents established power and the status quo, possessing inherent advantages that seem to tilt the field before the game even begins, creating an immediate and palpable disparity.
This perceived inequity triggers a powerful human desire for fairness. Widespread underdog support is often a form of social rectification. By cheering for the disadvantaged side, fans psychologically attempt to level the playing field. It is a vote against an unfair system, a subconscious effort to restore balance to a universe that seems to favor the powerful. A victory for the lesser team feels like cosmic justice being served.
There is also a subtle element of schadenfreude at play. Witnessing the fall of a dominant, often arrogant, favorite provides a satisfaction. The collapse of a dynasty or the humbling of an undefeated titan is a compelling spectacle. It confirms that no power is absolute and that entitlement is a fragile state. This disruption of the established order is gratifying for those who feel constrained by hierarchies in their own lives.
Ultimately, to root for the underdog is to participate in a moral narrative. It aligns the fan with virtues like humility and perseverance against vices like arrogance and entitlement. This choice elevates sports viewership from passive consumption to active expression of one’s own ethical framework. The scoreboard becomes a secondary concern to the moral victory of having backed the more righteous, if less capable, contender.
The Economics of Expectation
Fandom involves an emotional transaction, and underdog support offers asymmetric emotional dividends. A favorite’s victory is the expected outcome. It delivers a mild, fleeting satisfaction, akin to a stock performing exactly as predicted. The emotional upside is capped because the result was never in doubt. This predictability creates a low ceiling for elation, making the experience forgettable and failing to create lasting memories.
Conversely, the potential return on an underdog victory is nearly limitless. Because a loss is the anticipated result, the emotional risk is negligible. However, a win delivers a euphoric surge of shock, joy, and vindication.
This emotional jackpot is what fans truly crave. It is the reason improbable wins become legendary; they provide a psychological high that a predictable outcome can never repl icate. The narrative value skyrockets with improbability.
The logic of expectation is clear on online sports betting sites, where odds quantify the likelihood of an outcome. While these platforms deal in financial risk, the fan engages in emotional risk. Betting on a heavy favorite offers a small return, just as cheering for one offers a small emotional one. The real emotional value lies in the long shot, where the potential for a memorable, story-worthy payoff is greatest.
Some of the most cherished underdog stories in sports are memorable precisely because they shattered all rational expectations. They break predictive models and defy the cold logic of statistical analysis. This defiance is exhilarating. It suggests that human elements like passion, chemistry, and sheer will can supersede quantifiable data. This belief is a cornerstone of the sporting mythos and a major driver of underdog support.
Identity and Self-Reflection
Our affinity for the long shot is deeply personal and often operates as a form of psychological projection. When we watch a team overcome immense odds, we do not just see athletes; we see a reflection of our own struggles and aspirations.
The underdog’s battle against a superior foe mirrors our own professional, personal, and internal conflicts. Their fight becomes a tangible representation of our own hopes for triumph against adversity.
Most people have experienced being the underdog in their own quotidian lives, whether facing a difficult project at work, a personal challenge, or a systemic barrier. This shared experience creates a powerful bond of empathy with the team that is not supposed to win. We understand their position intimately because we have lived it. Their struggle is not an abstract concept but a familiar and deeply felt reality.
The underdog’s victory feels intensely vicarious. When the underdog wins, it is not just their triumph; it is ours. This moment of success validates our own struggles and reinforces the belief that our own efforts against long odds are not futile. The win provides powerful external evidence for an internal hope we all carry: the hope that we, too, can overcome the giants in our lives.
So, what is an underdog? It is a mirror. It reflects our own potential for resilience and our desire to believe that disadvantages can be conquered. By supporting them, we are, in a sense, cheering for the best version of ourselves. The team becomes a proxy for our own latent potential, and their success provides a powerful and inspiring script for our own lives.
The Narrative Power of Effort
A key component of our attraction is the attribution of effort. We instinctively perceive that the underdog must work harder, display more grit, and function with greater cohesion to even compete. This perceived exertion is seen as more virtuous than the favorite’s reliance on innate talent. We lionize the grind and the struggle, seeing it as a more noble path to victory than effortless dominance.
The very condition of being the underdog necessitates the display of admirable human qualities. A team cannot overcome a talent deficit without determination, strategic creativity, and unwavering belief. These are the qualities that make for a compelling human story. The favorite can win while coasting; the underdog cannot. Their predicament forces them to be narratively interesting and morally compelling.
This is why so many legendary underdog stories in sports are passed down through generations. They are not just about a single game; they are parables about the power of the human spirit.
The 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s victory is not just a historical footnote; it is a foundational myth about what is possible when a collective will confronts overwhelming statistical probability.
When we root for the underdog, we are choosing the better story. The narrative of the dominant champion is monotonous and predictable. The narrative of the defiant challenger who triumphs against all reason is the essence of drama. It is a story that feels earned, both by the athletes on the field and the fans who invested their hopes in them.