Psychologists often seek to discover patterns of behavior in similar people in similar circumstances. One such study is the psychological effect of sports teams and their fans. In a study conducted at Murry State University, Daniel L. Wann and Thomas J. Dolan attempted to prove that fans strongly associated with their favorite team would be biased in their evaluation of past, present, and future performance. Wann and Thomas' study sought to prove that Murry State students who had a strong association with their basketball team, when asked about their records in previous seasons, estimated more than was actually won. Additionally, if students were asked their predictions for the team for the current year, they would be much higher than they could likely achieve. Finally, they would ask them to make predictions about their future performance and see if there was a trend among these people. To do this, Wann and Dolan used 106 subreaders. Forty-four were male and sixty-two female student volunteers who participated in the study for extra credit. At the time of this test, the Murry State basketball team was first in its conference with a 4-1 record. The study consisted of a packet with many different questions that would help rate people. The first page rated the identifiability of people within the team. It consisted of seven questions, each with a score of 1 to 8 in association. The last two pages of the packet were the team's evaluation topics. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Subjects were asked questions such as: how many games did the team win in the previous year (the answer was 17); How many wins will they have this season (the answer to that question ended up being 18); and how many wins do you see for next season. Subjects then responded to four self-ratings of what they considered to be a) mediocre and outstanding, b) performance well above or below expectations, c) poor or good teams, and d) teams with little or great ability. Students were then asked how they thought the current team would finish the season (i.e., NCAA champion, conference winner, etc.) and to rate those possibilities. Wannad Dolan found that their hypothesis was correct and that sports fans who had a greater affiliation with the team were more likely to complete the team's records. They found that students tended to think the team did better in previous seasons and that their predictions for the present and future were wildly exaggerated. In a later article, Wann continued that their assessment was true not only for teams with winning programs, but also for teams that also have losing records. Wann carried out this study to contradict a report by Hirt and Rials which differed in opinion from his original study and claimed that it was a biased assessment. In his second study, Wann found that the same effect was true for devoted fans of a losing team. They tended to do the same things as other fans. Psychologists like to study the effects of certain things on people. few people have looked at the effect of sports on fans. Although everyone perceives things in different ways, certain types of people, such as strongly affiliated viewers.. "