The Shorenstein Center

two people with short hair, likely men, viewed from behind while sitting on a couch watching sports on television. One is dark skinned with black hair, and one is light skinned with blonde hair. They sit shoulder to shoulder on the couch, seemingly watching companionably.

Research Initiatives

Fandom and Social Connection Initiative

Studying how to harness sports fandom to strengthen relationships, build community, and reduce social disconnection.

Sports fandom is one of the most powerful social forces in American life. It is widespread, deeply felt, and unusually diverse. Yet it is often dismissed as mere entertainment.

The Fandom and Social Connection Initiative starts from a different premise: fandom is a social resource; it’s a virtue.

Live games give people a reason to gather. Shared teams make conversation easier. Seasons create rhythm and continuity. For many people, especially men, sports provide a low-pressure excuse to reach out, spend time together, and maintain relationships.

Our goal is to understand these dynamics scientifically—and use what we learn to help more people experience the social benefits of fandom.

 

Click here to connect with the initiative.

Fandom and Social Connection Initiative logo

Why fandom matters

Americans are experiencing a “connection recession.” People have fewer close friends, spend more time alone, and struggle to maintain relationships.

Sports fandom offers a promising response because it is widespread, deeply held, recurring, and fun. It cuts across demographic and political lines. It gives people shared identity, shared emotion, and shared rituals.

That makes fandom worth studying.

And worth strengthening.

Research Projects

The Fandom and Social Connection Initiative is developing a number of research tracks to better understand the topic. Examples include:

Social Viewing

50 million Americans watch NFL games alone every week. Our research tests whether simple prompts can turn solitary viewing into social time.

In one randomized field experiment, prompting people who planned to watch an NFL game alone to invite someone else substantially increased social viewing. It also increased feelings of connection, total time spent with others, and the likelihood of watching with others again the following week without further prompting.

Depolarization

Sports fandom can create shared identities across political divides.

Our experimental work finds that shared co-fandom can reduce partisan animosity at least as effectively as shared religion, race, socio-economic status, or hometown. It increases openness to interacting with political outgroups, and reduces hostile behavior toward counter-partisans. Shared fandom is one of the rare identities that can soften political division without requiring people to change their views.

What comes next

These are two examples of a broader research agenda. We are pursuing many related projects on fandom, friendship, family connection, masculinity, civic life, and social connection.

The Initiative will bring together collaborators from Harvard and other universities, along with partners in sports, media, civic life, and industry. Together, we aim to build a stronger science of fandom and translate that science into real-world impact.

This site will be updated over time with new research, essays, collaborators, tools, events, and ways to get involved.

About the Initiative

The Fandom and Social Connection Initiative is based at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and is led by Todd Rogers, Weatherhead Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

The Initiative is supported by a gift from FOX Sports.

 

About Professor Rogers

Todd Rogers is the Weatherhead Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He is a behavioral scientist who designs, evaluates, and scales interventions that help people thrive. His work leads to peer-reviewed research, public policies, large-scale partnerships, and social enterprise startups.

Before focusing on fandom and social connection he developed interventions to improve communication, civic participation, education, student attendance, and other social challenges. He has worked with organizations including the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Microsoft, United Nations, Capital One, Citi, Freddie Mac, FBI, OMB and others. He co-founded the venture-backed social enterprise EveryDay Labs, and co-authored Writing for Busy Readers.

 

Contact

For research collaborations, media inquiries, or partnership opportunities: todd_rogers@hks.harvard.edu

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