“Buzzer Beaters” and “Barn Burners”: The Effects on Enjoyment of Watching the Game Go “Down to the Wire”

Abstract

Prior research on the effects of being kept in suspense about the outcome of a sports contest on spectators' enjoyment of the sporting event has yielded ambiguous findings, which the present investigation was designed to clarify. A high school football game was videotaped professionally. The tapes were edited, and play-by-play and color commentary was added, so as to create a suspenseful version and a nonsuspenseful version of the game. In addition to suspense, outcome of the game (favorable, unfavorable) and gender of the viewer (female, male) were predicted to affect enjoyment of the sportscast. Enjoyment of watching the sportscast was assessed in a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design. Viewing a more suspenseful version of the sportscast made the game more enjoyable, less boring, more exciting, and less dull. Moreover, under conditions of high suspense, viewers were more anxious about the outcome, cared more whether the liked team won, and liked the victorious team more than did viewers in the nonsuspenseful versions of the sportscast. In line with disposition theory and prior research, a favorable outcome for the desired team was more enjoyable than an unfavorable outcome, and men generally reported liking the sportscast more than did women.

Reconceptualizing and Reexamining Suspense as a Predictor of Mediated Sports Enjoyment

“…Though these studies did not directly measure suspense or perceived suspense, it is clear that the way sporting events are described by commentators plays a role in how viewers perceive and experience the action. In the one study that did examine this relationship directly, Bryant, Rockwell, and Owens (1994) found that commentary provided by a partisan (i.e., hometeam) radio announcer can indeed add to the level of suspense experienced during the game by listeners who share that partisanship.…”

Investigating Suspense as a Predictor of Enjoyment in Sports Video Games

“…The same is true of televised sporting events (Bryant, Rockwell, & Owens, 1994). Sports contests naturally contain dramatic elements, such as competition and violence.…”

“…Bryant et al (1994) created suspenseful and non-suspenseful versions of a high school football game. The researchers found that viewers in the suspenseful conditions enjoyed the game more, and found the game less boring and more exciting.…”

“…The researchers found that viewers in the suspenseful conditions enjoyed the game more, and found the game less boring and more exciting. Those viewers also reportedly cared more about the outcome and had stronger emotional responses when their favorite team won (Bryant et al, 1994). Gan et al (1997) considered the effect of suspense on enjoyment of NCAA basketball games.…”

Winning Isn’t Everything: The Effect of Nationalism Bias on Enjoyment of a Mediated Sporting Event

“…Since previous research has shown games which have more suspense are more enjoyable to viewers, the clips edited together highlighted the closeness of the scores, and the slim margins of victory which occurred (Bryant, Rockwell, & Owens, 1994;Gan, Tuggle, Mitrook, Coussement, & Zillmann, 1997). Though the outcomes of the four different videos were different, the main elements of the videos remained as similar as possible.…”