George S. Patton famously asserted that Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser, and that the very idea of losing was hateful to the American mentality. And while I can’t speak to the accuracy of everything that came out of that eternally braggadocious tactician’s mouth, this statement has always struck me as an accurate one, especially within the context of competitive sports.
There’s a particular agony in watching a team lose. It’s hard to describe, and even harder to quantify, but emotional investment as a whole is something that makes human beings identify with as secure and as known a quantity as possible.