It’s official — sports make the world sadder (says science)

By Felicity Duncan

Two British researchers have confirmed something I've long suspected: in the aggregate, sports make us less happy. Personally, I don't watch any sports or support any teams. For years, I've been telling people it's because I don't want to put my happiness in the hands of the members of a football team. 

Now, at last, researchers have devoted their efforts to proving that I am correct — according to a paper by Peter Dolton and George MacKerron, football makes people, on average, less happy. The decline in happiness that follows a loss by the team you support is more than twice as large as the improvement in happiness that follows a victory, and the sadness of a loss lingers significantly longer too. 

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