Red Team Versus Blue Team

A study about empathy was done in the soccer crazy town of Manchester. Researchers primed the subjects by having them write about one of two prompts. One prompt was about how much they loved their Manchester team. The second prompt was about why they loved soccer. 

After the subjects were primed to feel one way, they were sent across campus to another building for the “next” thing. On their way over, a confederate of the researchers appeared to twist an ankle, and was on the ground in pain. The important part was the jersey that the “injured” jogger wore. In some cases they wore a Manchester jersey, others a jersey of their biggest rivals, Liverpool, and a third was neutral. 

What happened makes intuitive sense. The Manchester fans who wrote about why they loved their team were much more likely to help those who supported Manchester, less likely to help the neutral shirt and least likely to help the person who wore their rival’s Liverpool jersey. The subjects were primed to be positive about their team and that suggests they were primed to care less about those outside of their tribe. 

In the second instance where participants wrote about why they loved soccer the fans were more willing to help the actor wearing the Man U jersey, but they were also much more willing to help the Liverpool fan. 

This suggests that when people are primed to love their team [insert blue or read here] they are more likely to help those with the same allegiances. And injure those who are not on their team. But more importantly, when they are primed to love the game of soccer [insert American here] they are more likely to be empathetic to both perceived friends and enemies. 

On this Memorial Day, we should put love of country ahead of blue or red.