THE THRILL OF A CLOSE GAME

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Abstract
Students watched live broadcasts of eight games of the 1995 NCAA men's basketball tournament. They reported their enjoyment of second-half play, which was either extremely, substantially, moderately, or minimally suspenseful (as defined by point separations of 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, and 15 or more, respectively, during the second half of games). Men's enjoyment proved to be a monotonic function of suspense about outcome. Women's enjoyment paralleled that of men, with the glaring exception of extremely suspenseful games. Whereas men enjoyed the nail-biter type of game the most, women's enjoyment dropped to levels associated with minimal suspense. In addition, rooting for the winning team and, to a lesser degree, being right in predicting the winning team were found to contribute to game enjoyment.