Partner Passion Tests

The PUMA 'Love or Football' campaign may shed some insight into whether football fans are truly more passionate about their football teams than their wives or girlfriends. PUMA partnered with Droga5 and researchers from Bristol University to find out whether Newcastle United fans, those who were in a committed relationship for at least five years and were season ticket holders for the same amount of time, cared more about their team than their partners.

Prior to the test, the fans told the researchers that they loved their team and wives equally. The researchers then had the fans destroy pictures of their teams and their wives; each person had a skin conductor attached to him in order to measure his state of stress when cutting up each picture. Surprisingly, many fans refused to cut the team picture but showed no hesitation when cutting up the picture of their wives! After that, the participants were given two 'voodoo' dolls: one represented his favorite Newcastle player while the other represented his wife. The fan was told to prick one of the dolls; if he pricked the football player, that player would be out of the next game, but if he pricked his wife, she'd be in bed for a week. Again, many fans chose to prick their wives!

Surprisingly enough, while the fans in the PUMA 'Love or Football' study seemed to show that their love, indeed, was stronger for their teams, the researchers discovered overall that the mens' love and affection for their partners was actually five times stronger! You can find out more details and results from the study by visiting the dedicated website.