Wann’s studies show that people who identify with a sports team enjoy higher levels of vitality — defined as an “experience of possessing energy and aliveness” — than people who do not. Engaged fans also describe their devotion as a source of meaning in life. In part, this is because fandom supplies a social group people can tap into. “It gives you this sense of fitting in,” Wann says. Sports fans, he’s found, experience less loneliness and alienation — and those social connections are especially crucial in later life, since isolated older people have higher rates of heart disease and premature death.
