A new study that ranks NFL teams by the emotions of its followers discovered that the Oakland Raiders have the most unstable fans, while Pittsburgh Steelers diehards are the saddest.
Two marketing professors at Emory University scrolled through Twitter after every game of the 2012 NFL reason and used an algorithm to classify each posting as either positive or negative. The teams that drew overwhelmingly positive responses from fans after wins and mostly negative ones after losses ranked high on the
"most unstable" list, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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According to the study, 79.6 percent of post-win Steelers tweets were positive, while only 33.1 percent of post-loss responses were — a difference of 46.5 percent, which put the team at No. 2 "most unstable." The Raiders, meanwhile, had a percentage gap of 47 percent.
Dallas Cowboys fans were ranked the most stable fan base, while the New Orleans Saints took the top spot for happiest fans after a win.
Football Fans Rankings:
Five Happiest After Wins:
New Orleans Saints
Cleveland Browns
Oakland Raiders
Seattle Seahawks
Chicago Bears
Five Saddest After Losses:
Pittsburgh Steelers
Detroit Lions
New England Patriots
Miami Dolphins
Oakland Raiders
Five Most Stable Fan Bases:
Dallas Cowboys
Indianapolis Colts
Philadelphia Eagles
Houston Texans
Atlanta Falcons
Five Most Unstable Fan Bases:
Oakland Raiders
Pittsburgh Steelers
New England Patriots
Detroit Lions
New Orleans Saints
"The conclusion appears to be that Steelers and Raiders fans apparently celebrate their wins quite joyfully but take their
losses as hard as almost any other fan base," Yahoo! Sports reported.
The phenomenon of feeling sad after a loss is especially prevalent in Pittsburgh, the study found. Indeed, many locals call it the "Steelers Hangover."
"We have a lot of Steelers fans that if they lose, they'll call off work the next day," Jim Coen, who owns a sports apparel store in the city, told the Post-Gazette. "They're very passionate about their team."
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