Your Favorite Sport Quietly Reveals How Smart You Are, According To Research
Halfpoint | Shutterstock It seems that a person's favorite sport might be deeper than just a fun, silly preference, but an actual insight into their intelligence. As it turns out, there might be more to die-hard sports fans than just rooting for their favorite team and coming together on game days for camaraderie and a good time, at least according to psychology.
In a study conducted by HowtoBet, psychologists were able to deduce which sports fans actually have the highest IQ. The remote IQ test assessed the cognitive skills of participants in four areas: verbal, mathematics, logic, and visual to find the smartest sports fans in the world.
Research determined that wrestling has the smartest fan base of all sports.
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If you've ever looked down your nose at someone because they watched WWE, you might need a napkin to wipe off some of that egg on your face. Sure, it can often seem like more of a soap opera than a sporting event, but that doesn't take away from the athleticism of the wrestlers themselves and the intelligence of the fans who enjoy watching.
The researchers discovered that wrestling fans have the highest IQ among all sports fans. It seems fans who watch wrestling and keep up with the characters, storylines, and wrestling moves can increase their intelligence in some capacity.
Outside of wrestling, there were other smart sports fans.
Following wrestling were ice hockey fans with 112.30 IQ, basketball fans with 110.70 IQ, football fans with 105.90 IQ, and finally baseball fans with 101.30 IQ. The study even found that NASCAR fans were the least intelligent overall, with an average IQ of just 95.20.
Each participant was also categorized by gender preferences, and it was found that female sports fans were more intelligent than their male counterparts. Female sports fans earned an average IQ score of 109.60, while male sports fans earned an average IQ score of 105.50.
There are other health benefits to being a die-hard sports fan.
Enjoying a sport is more than just an exercise to flex your brain; it can also lead to improvements in your overall health, both physically and mentally. Research has shown that just being a spectator at a sports event can increase dopamine levels in the brain and help reduce the risk of developing depression.
Fans at sporting events also benefit psychologically from the feeling of community they get from attending an actual game or watching it at a pub with friends and even strangers. People at a game can experience positive social interactions with others from all walks of life.
So, aside from having an incredibly high IQ, sports fans are also more likely to experience stronger emotional well-being. Feeling connected to a sports team allows people to actually care about something outside of their day-to-day responsibilities. For many people, sports become something that they can use to connect with others.
They can get into passionate discussions and debates about their favorite teams or wrestlers, and build connections with people who share this in common. At the end of the day, having a favorite sport that you enjoy watching can mean so much more than just escapism. While non-sports fans would roll their eyes or proclaim that they don't understand the appeal behind watching sports in the first place, fans know it's rarely just about the game itself.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
