It’s that time again… When Super Bowl Sunday dominates the U.S. headlines, and people plan their Sunday evenings around a get-together, party, or the game. It’s also a good time to look at two stories related to Super Bowl Sunday.
The first is the largely debunked myth that domestic violence calls spike around Super Bowl Sunday and other drinking holidays of the year (like New Year’s). Snopes originally tracked down the myth and showed it to be nothing more than another urban legend. Since their last update on the myth in 2005, however (and our article 4 years ago), there’s been further research examining the myth.
A 2007 study by Oths & Robertson examined 2,387 crisis call records covering a previous 3-year period. They supplemented the call records with both formal and informal interviews with abused women and staff. What did they find?
The widely held belief that more women seek shelter during “drinking holidays” such as New Year’s and the Super Bowl was unsubstantiated, while the contention that women with school-aged children time their leaving to coincide with breaks in the academic schedule was supported.
What about other mental health issues, like suicide? Do they spike on Super Bowl Sundays? Psychologist Thomas Joiner had a hypothesis about serious suicidal behavior — that the need to belong is so powerful that, when satisfied, it can prevent suicide. Joiner and fellow researchers (2006) investigated whether perceived membership in a valued group — like a sports team — meets that “need to belong” and can negate suicidal tendencies. They found that, indeed, fewer suicides occurred on Super Bowl Sundays than during non-Super Bowl Sundays. So no spike there either.
What about other behaviors surrounding Super Bowl Sunday, like driving fatalities? On Super Bowl Sundays, compared to non-Super Bowl Sundays, Redelmeier & Stewart (2003) found a 41% relative increase in the average number of fatalities after the telecast on Super Bowl Sunday. So if there’s one piece of actionable advice you can take from the research, it’s to be very careful driving home after a Super Bowl Sunday get-together or party.
But in my opening, I said “largely debunked” myth. That’s because there is one set of data that has found a connection between football and domestic violence, and in turn, Super Bowl Sunday. However, that data was not published in a peer-reviewed journal — the usual standard for research — so it should be taken with a grain of salt. The study appeared in the Handbook of Sports and Media (Gantz et al., 2006) and examined domestic violence police dispatches by day in 15 NFL cities, which resulted in 26,192 days worth of data (and 1,366,518 domestic violence calls). The researchers found a tiny positive effect for a rise in domestic violence dispatches on or after Super Bowl Sunday. By comparison, they found a much bigger effect for a rise in domestic violence calls around major holidays like Christmas though — nearly fives times as many. So while they did find a small but significant relationship there, it must be tempered by the fact that this was never peer-reviewed research and that most major holidays throughout the year have a much bigger domestic violence impact.
Last, two years ago we reported that watching the Super Bowl may be hazardous to your health. In that article, we noted research published in the New England Journal of Medicine that examined 4,279 heart cases that occurred during the World Cup games. The researchers found that men’s risk of having a heart attack was 3x higher while watching their team play, while women’s risk was 2x higher. Something to keep in mind while watching the game this year — be aware of heart attack symptoms and take them seriously if your heart suddenly doesn’t feel right.
Enjoy the game! We will.
References:
Gantz, W., Bradley, S.D. & Wang, Z. (2006). Televised NFL Games, the Family, and Domestic Violence. In: Handbook of sports and media. Raney, Arthur A. (Ed.); Bryant, Jennings (Ed.); Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, pp. 365-381.
Joiner, T.E., Jr., Hollar, D. & Van Orden, K. (2006). On Buckeyes, Gators, Super Bowl Sunday, and the Miracle on Ice: ‘Pulling together’ is associated with lower suicide rates. Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 25(2), 179-195.
Oths, K.S. & Robertson, T. (2007). Give me shelter: Temporal patterns of women fleeing domestic abuse. Human Organization, 66(3), 249-260.
Redelmeier, DA & Stewart, CL. (2003). Driving fatalities on Super Bowl Sunday. The New England Journal of Medicine, 348(4), 368-369.
9 comments
We need to get rid of the term “domestic” violence. It makes me cringe. Violence is violence.
Grohol only counts violence against women as domestic violence. The overwhelming majority of domestic violence incidents are perpetrated by women (because domestic violence also includes child abuse and elder abuse). Even if only intimate partner violence is looked at, at least as much is perpetrated by women as by men.
Good points made. However it is difficult to track the amount of domestic violence that goes unreported.
Dr. Grohol,
Taking inspiration from your article I published a post on my blog asking the question:
Does the Superbowl promote unhealthy attitudes -and Why?
I initiated the conversation by answering first with the following response:
I believe that when watched with the family, family togetherness being the primary objective, it becomes a healthy recreational activity for the whole family to enjoy. However, when the game itself takes precedence over family togetherness, the message given is that a game of football is more important than the members of one’s family (a surefire way to ruin the self-esteem of one’s family).
If you’re not too busy watching the game I’d love for you to comment. http://su.pr/33T2Vp
Have a great Super Bowl Sunday,
Ben
Interesting post, would like to say something important about penis health.
The penis is one of the most sensitive areas of the male body….and yet, ironically, the penis is also the recipient of some very abusive treatment, more so than any other organ of the body. Penis skin, over time, is expected to undergo many hours of touching, rubbing, penetrating and, quite often, aggressive behavior. The penis is frequently yanked, grabbed, squeezed and pumped. And, despite all this aggressive behavior, this sensitive organ can withstand any number of acts of which few are gentle. Experiencing all this activity you would think that the penis and penile well-being should not be ignored. Well, at least that is what you would expect. However, with most men, this is not the case. And for men who ignore the health of their penis, beware, because if penile health is abandoned then, with time, you can expect loss of penis sensitivity or penile blood vessel damage, erectile issues, dry, cracking, irritated penis skin to name just a few of the potential male organ health problems. Over the long term expect health issues in which your penis may not provide the performance to which you have become accustomed and of which you will no longer be proud.
Most of us sensible guys give the other parts of our bodies lots of attention through exercise, vitamin pills, minerals, nutritional liquids and diets to keep our bodies healthy in order to provide peak performance, physically and mentally. So you have to ask yourself, why do so many men ignore the health of the most sensitive and pleasurable part of their body? There is no logical answer, however, now is the time for intelligent men of action to step up and be responsible for their penis health care and do so before the inevitable penis health issues appear.
There are products available that have penis-select vitamins, minerals and nutrients that are ingredients necessary for proper penis health care. For information on penis health and penis health products visit, http://www.man1health.com And, please, act now, your penis health is much too important to ignore any longer.
Be fair in your write-up.
It was not Snopes that “tracked down” the Super Bowl myth.
It was the journalistic research of Ken Ringle and Christina Hoff Sommers, which Snopes quoted in nearly its entirety.
So, kudos and thanks to Ken Ringle and Christina Hoff Sommers for their dedication and integrity.
I am curious as to research on domestic violence spikes in the city supporting the losing SuperBowl team, such as Denver in 2014. A policeman once told me law enforcement officers dreaded being in these cities after such a loss, due to the increase in domestic violence. He was eyes on the ground, not quoting a study and I believed his experience regarding this matter.
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