Rudy, Seabiscuit, Cinderella Man.  What do these things have in common? All of them are great comeback stories.

We all love to cheer for an underdog. They are the proverbial David and Goliath. Have you ever asked yourself, “why do we like to root for the underdog?“. Social psychologists have studied the underdog effect. Allison et. al (2008) defined this effect as the people’s tendency to support or root for an entity that is perceived as attempting to accomplish a difficult task and is not expected to succeed against an advantaged opponent. Rooting for an underdog crosses cultural boundaries. We all can relate, because at some point we all feel small and powerless.

The feeling of rooting for the difficult is not exclusive to people. We root for animals and even inanimate objects. The underdog schema is activated every time we see a disadvantaged position. When the schema is activated, we tend to feel sympathy and support for the underdog. Another explanation to the underdog effect is that it gives us a sense of uniqueness. When the most logical and popular choice is the “Top dog“, we tend to go against the popular choice to maintain a sense of uniqueness. The interesting thing is that most people cheer the underdog as well.

SELF-INTEREST

Our preference for the underdog is a mile long but an inch deep. We all want to be winners and we try to emulate the qualities of winners. So while we root for the underdog, we only root until it affects our self-interest. Imagine two house painting companies, one company just opened and struggling to maintain business because of the economy. The other company is doing very well and has many employees.

Ask yourself: Which company would you recommend to a friend? What about if you needed your house painted?

The same scenario was used on the study mentioned above. The variables were a little different. The subjects needed to decide which two water-testing companies should test the community water for cancer-causing chemicals. One company was struggling to stay in business, while the other one was in business for 30 years. Most people selected the smaller company when the scenario was testing other communities. In contrast, when it was their own community the subjects preferred the big company.

While some studies suggest that the underdog effect in only superficial, we know the effect is well indoctrinated in our culture. Just look at literature like the stories of Horatio Alger’s from “Rags to Riches”. Or look at popular movies like Rocky, Rudy, Erin Brockovich, Million Dollar Baby, Miracle, Bad News Bears, or the Pursuit of Happyness.

We all love those stories.  Just thinking about these stories triggers a feeling of accomplishment.  Some of us even think that we are the protagonist and we can overcome the same struggles.  How many times do you start to hear the “Rocky” song and you get excited?  I think there is a universal feeling of struggle and overcoming the difficult that makes us relate to the underdog.

What about you? Why do you think we root for the underdog?