Soccer Deaths And Football Bets: The Behavioral Economics Of Fan Violence
Friday, February 3, 2012 - 08:04
in Psychology & Sociology
As you know, 74 people were killed this Wednesday whenEgyptian soccer fans stampeded into a bottleneck after a 3-1 hometown upsetwin. While certainly tragic, it’s far from irrational: it turns out thebehavioral economics were stacked against them.Take the link between football and domestic violence. In2011 economists Gordon Dahl and David Card showed that when a home team loses, domestic violencein the home city increases by 10- percent. On police reports, you can see reportsstart to rise in the final quarter as a loss looks likely. Then reports peak anhour after the game and return to normal a couple hours later. read more