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First, let's look at "BIRGing." This term is not a typo of an eating disorder, but applies to the phenomenon called "Basking in Reflected Glory." When your team is doing well, you feel great.  Research shows that on the day after a team's win, people feel better about themselves. They say "we" won, and by "we," they don't mean themselves, personally. The closer you identify with the team, the more likely you are to BIRG. People who BIRG also are more likely to wear their team's regalia on the day after a victory.

In contrast, "CORFing" means that you "Cut Off Reflected Failure." Your team was trounced and now you want to distance yourself from them and their disgrace as much as possible. It's not "we," who lost, it's "they." The last thing a CORFer wants to wear on the day following the team's loss are hats or shirts with the team's logo. This is the test of the true vs. fickle fan. It's the CORFers who are the fickle fans. Their identification with them rises and falls with the box scores. True fans, in contrast, will don jerseys, hats, and almost any item with the team logo no matter how poorly their team performs. True fans may feel dejected, but their heroes remain their heroes, even if somewhat tarnished by defeat.

These two aspects of the psychology of sports fans are great for understanding how fans, true and fickle, behave after victory and loss, but other concepts help explain why fans do what they do during games. Fans who actually attend games regularly display the social psychological phenomenon of disinhibition. They shout, yell, stand up, cheer, and high five strangers all around them. Even people who are ordinarily reserved and shy will explode in bursts of exhibitionism when surrounded by other people engaging in the same unrestrained excitement. Unfortunately, at times their disinhibition can create havoc as rowdy fans spill out onto the streets after a victory (or defeat) until subdued by local authorities. Needless to say, alcohol helps foster the disinhibition effect.  You don't even have to attend the game to show the disinhibition effect. Sports bars provide a fine venue for the group mentality to take over and for alcohol to nurture the process.

Whether you attend the game, watch or listen to it, or follow the scores on line, sports fans are particularly subject to the effect known as superstitious conditioning. Skinner discovered this effect when he was training the pigeons in his Skinner box to perform  their various feats including, appropriately, "Take Me Out to the bal Game" on a xylophone.  When Skinner trained his pigeons through operant conditioning, he noticed that they would start to perform behaviors that he was not reinforcing but that the pigeons seemed to "think" they needed to perform in order to get their pellet rewards.  For example, Skinner may have been training the pigeons to discriminate between a + and a - displayed above the lever they needed to peck at. However, the pigeons sometimes added their own unnecessary move, such as turning in a circle, before pecking at the right target. That little dance, superstitiously reinforced (because it wasn't necessary to receive the reward), then became part of the pigeon's ritual.

What do pigeons pecking at a lever have to do with sports fans? Maybe you already see the connection. Sports fans will claim that by turning on the game and watching it, they caused the team to start scoring and eventually winning the game.  Others will claim the opposite, avoiding any real-time action because they can "cause" the team to lose just by turning in. Then there are the lucky jerseys, hats, sneakers, t-shirts, etc., etc., that sports fans will wear (or not) to help their teams win. Wearing a hat facing forward? Turn it backward and maybe the team will score. If they do, you'll never wear that hat with the brim facing forward ever again during a game.

The ingroup-outgroup bias is yet another tried and true social  psychological phenomenon. The fans of one team, the "in-group" will deprecate the fans of the other team, the "outgroup." There typically is very little, if anything, that distinguishes these two groups of fans. They are passionate about their teams, know every detail about the players, and religiously follow the progress of their hometown heroes. The only factor that differentiates these groups is the team they root for. Yet, people create arbitrary distinctions between the teams (and fans) they love and those they hate. It's doubtful that knowledge of this social psychological principle will lead to fans of the Patriots to reach out and hug fans of the Jets, but theoretically they should recognize that they are more alike than they are different.

Athletes themselves are subject to a host of other social psychological phenomena.  Debates wage in the literature about whether a team is advantaged or not by playing a clutch game at home. The "home  team advantage," which most people believe in, refers to the slight edge that the home team has due to the familiarity they have with the field, the preponderance of enthusiastic (i.e. disinhibited) fans in the stands, and the fact that they don't have to travel. Conversely, Florida State psychologist Roy Baumeister supports the "home chocke hypothesis" which predicts that home teams are more likely to lose in the final playoff games of a series because their self-consciousness is pathologically increased and they can't focus on the game. Instead, they focus on how the fans are feeling or perhaps on how much they'll enjoy the celebration when they win. In either case, the statistical and theoretical battle will no doubt continue. The possibility that playing a home game isn't all that advantageous is nevertheless an interesting one.

I made the splash over the pond last year, moving from my beloved New York City to London. I have always had a special place for London in my heart and when the opportunity came to work in London I could not turn it down.

There are many things that I looked forward to exploring in London, and of course all the museums and famous landmarks were high up on the list but finding a good sports bar in London was certainly the main priority. I am a huge sports fan, I love my American sports, including American Football and Baseball, and so a sport bar in London that showed American sports was essential. I was also keen to embrace the British sports on offer, I was determined to give Cricket a go, and have always followed the English premier league.

After digging around on the internet it became clear that there were plenty of options for sports bars in London. The most famous and prominent one I came across appeared to be The Sports Cafe in Haymarket. I spoke to a few Londoner's and it definitely came recommended so I thought I would try it out first for American Football. The New England Patriots were playing the New York Jets, quite a fierce rivalry, so this was a perfect game to watch in a bar for the atmosphere. Sure enough the Sports Cafe was showing this on the big screen and boy was I impressed with this sports bar. There are TV screens dotted all over the bar, the decor is dedicated to sports, even with a model F1 car, so you walk in knowing that if there is a big sports event on then this London bar sure will have it showing.

There were lots of American Football fans there watching the game and it was great to have table service where we could sit down, enjoy the game and order plenty of beer and a bit of food. The menu is classic American, so lots of Burgers, sandwiches and Chicken wings! After talking to the staff here I also determined that this was truly a 24/7 sports bar as they show live sports all through the night if there is a big game on. For example Cricket fans flock here for the Ashes games between England and Australia so if you are out partying on want to finish the night off in London with sports then this is the place to go.

After the sports bar I was after something a bit more local and authentic as it was definitely more of an American style sports bar. I spoke to a few work colleagues and discovered there were plenty of traditional London pubs showing sports.

The best by far that I came across was The Three Kings in Kensington. This is another dedicated sports bar in London but its set in a huge pub with dedicated zones depending on what game is on, so you might have a bunch of rugby fans crammed in the front room cheering on their team, and then a load of football fans in another area watching the multiple screens. The atmosphere is electric in here with plenty of singing and has fast become one of my favourite bars in London to watch sport.

A few great sports bars in London include the Jetlag bar in central London which has comfy sofas and a nice relaxed atmosphere for watching the games. I also really like The Roxy in London Bridge which doubles up as a cinema in the evenings so this a pretty cool place to watch the Rugby in particular. If you want lively atmosphere then The Clapham Grand is a fantastic setting as it's an old theatre so you can sit back with over 1,200 people and watch on one of the biggest sports screens I have ever seen!

As you can see there are plenty of options for sports bars in London so I hope you enjoy some of these.

Dylan franks is a born and bred Londoner, dedicated to sharing his vast knowledge of London pubs, bars and club with the world. For more London sports bars recommendations, check out his site http://www.designmynight.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dylan_Franks/781416
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There is nothing better than watching a game at the local sports bar surrounded by good friends, a cheering crowd, and good food. Watching live sports at a bar is really one of the best options because there is a real sense of camaraderie. Strangers and friends come together in order to cheer on their local team and their favorite players. The excitement of the game is heightened substantially by this atmosphere, and it certainly beats watching a sporting event at home. But the atmosphere in a bar is not a spontaneous thing. Many factors go into a pub in order to ensure that the experience is fun and lively.