Whose Fans Are Smarter: NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB or WWE?
While there are rivalries between the fans of different teams or athletes inside the same sport, there are also undoubtedly rivalries between the fans of different sports themselves. Everyone is convinced that their sport is superior to those championed by others and it’s essentially impossible to come to an objective decision about who is right, since taste is a subjective animal.
Intelligence, on the other hand, is a metric that can be measured. Thanks to a US smartest sports fan study by HowToBet.com, which collected and analyzed average IQ scores for specific teams and individuals, it’s now finally possible for aficionados of one discipline to claim the bragging rights of most intelligent fans out there. But who came away with the intellectual accolade?
Wrestling fans are top in class
It might come as a shock to fans of the USA’s other most popular sports – and perhaps even something of a surprise to WWE fans themselves – but the results of the study found that wrestling fans were the most intelligent among their sporting peers. From an IQ test remotely administered to over 1,000 fans of America’s six favorite pastimes, wrestling came out on top.
They narrowly pipped NHL enthusiasts to the title, scoring an average IQ of 112.60 to ice hockey’s 112.30. Basketball fans weren’t too far behind either, recording an average score of 110.70. Next on the list were NFL and MLB fans, who scored 105.90 and 101.30, respectively, while motor racing petrol heads came in a lowly last place, with a relatively low score of 95.20.
The science behind the scoring
HowToBet.com arrived at their findings by giving an IQ test to 1,006 sporting fans remotely. Both males and females were represented among their sample set, while the participants were ranked on four different cognitive disciplines: verbal intelligence, mathematical ability, logical reasoning and visual reasoning.
This broad mix of comprehension questions, problem solving tasks, puzzles and visual-based teasers gave the authors of the study a broad overview of their subjects’ intellectual ability. They were also asked a number of demographic-identifying questions at the beginning of the test to help differentiate them by sex, preferred sport and favorite team or athlete.
The female of the species
Interestingly, female fans were shown to have a slightly higher average IQ than males. The women scored an average of 109.6 in comparison to the guys’ 105.5, and although men outperformed the fairer sex in both verbal intelligence and visual reasoning, they were soundly beaten in mathematical ability and logical reasoning.
The study certainly makes for interesting reading from an anthropological standpoint and may surprise many sports fans – especially those whose fanbase for their preferred sport might have scored lower than they had expected. It also showed that when it comes to viewing sports with an intelligent eye, women can more than hold their own against men.
Whisper it quietly – but WWE fans are the smartest bunch in the USA, comfortably outperforming NFL, MLB and NASCAR aficionados and narrowly sneaking ahead of NHL and NBA enthusiasts. If you’re interested in learning more, you can see the full results of the survey here.
