A New Study Shows Spikes in Domestic Violence After NFL Sundays

September 28, 2010   ·   Ken Park   ·   Jump to comments

New research from economists David Card and Gordon B. Dahl shows an unfortunate relationship between family violence and sports. Their study focuses on the NFL, but it's plausible that their findings might also apply to the NBA and other professional sports.
They write:
We study the link between family violence and the emotional cues associated with wins and losses by local professional football teams. We hypothesize that the risk of violence is affected by the utility of game outcomes around a rationally expected reference point ... We find that upset losses lead to a 10 percent increase in the rate of at-home violence by men against their wives and girlfriends.
David Card is one of the more prominent researchers in the field. While many studies are plagued with methodological deficiencies, Card's are almost always meticulous, well-reasoned, and well-done.
Their results are both surprising and not so surprising at the same time.
When my bel...

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