"Studying the big game"

I'm Prabu David, I'm an associate professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State. We wanted to study a rivalry game like the OSU/Michigan game, and so when we set it up, we had no idea that these two teams would come ranked one and two into this game. So this just happened. It just dropped, you know,in our laps, literally, to get one of the games that people said were, was the game of the century. The traditional wisdom was, it's positive affect that really drives entertainment for the most part. What we do in this study is show very clearly that the oscillations in negative emotions and the juxtapositions of positive and negative emotions leads to great suspense, which in turn leads to entertainment. And as far as a study in suspense goes, you couldn't have scripted a better game. I mean, this was just plum in terms of the suspense. OSU got off to a good start and we by halftime it was a 28-14 game. But Michigan staged a valiant comeback, which made it a lot of fun. One of the great things about being at a place like Ohio State is there's so many opportunities. The game day scenario itself was quite exciting but the students were willing to participate in the game and also the research opportunities, for example, we were provided with a very nice lab to conduct the study in, we got a nice grant from the unit. And this game, it so happened that we were lucky that the drama unfolded in such a way that the suspense was so intense and we got some fantastic swings in emotions.

The Ohio State v. Michigan has been called the greatest rivalry in college sports.

But when the teams faced off on Nov. 18, 2006, the tension was even greater than usual. Both teams were undefeated, with Ohio State ranked first in the nation and Michigan second. The winner would compete in the National Championship game. (Ohio State ended up winning the game 42-39.)

For college football fans, it was huge.

Surprisingly, it was also important for a team of communication experts at Ohio State.

The game presented a rare opportunity to study how emotions are intertwined with entertainment. Entertainment is big business in the United States--and notoriously hard to study.

"Researchers want to study the impact of emotions, but it is very difficult to create powerful emotional reactions in a laboratory setting," says Prabu David, an Ohio State professor of communication. "This is a study that was done in the real world, and we can get a snapshot into a person’s emotional state while they are actually experiencing the emotion. Sports creates emotions that are very powerful, and which matter to people."

During the game, Ohio State, University of Michigan, and Michigan State undergrads watched the game from their chosen locations. During commercial breaks, they logged on to a web site to answer questions about who would win, how suspenseful the game was, and how good or bad they felt.

The finding: Fans' positive feelings during the game were most important. But negative feelings mattered, too.

"When people think about entertainment in general, they think it has to be fun and pleasurable. But enjoyment doesn't always mean positive emotions," David says. "Sometimes enjoyment is derived by having the negative emotion, and then juxtaposing that with the positive emotion."

Read the full Research News story.