The stress of die hard football fans during a compelling game can cause them to have higher heart rates and blood pressures than the players down on the pitch, according to a new study.
Barclays funded a study, hiring lead data analysts, to record and compare the heart rates of fans during a game, and used the results as in an advert for the Barclay’s Premiere League.
Fans watched the game as they usually would, with some going to see the game live in the stadium, on TV, or in a pub, and these factors were also compared. It found that conceding a goal led fans’ heart rates to reach an average of 145.5% of their resting level.
When the fans’ teams scored however, their heart rates were boosted to an incredible 215.5% of their resting heart rate.
These rates could well be higher than the rates of the player’s themselves. This is thought to be because the players only focus on the action that occurs directly in front of them and that they are involved in, whereas fans experience every moment of the entire game.
More prominently though, is that the players are likely fitter than the majority of the fans, and so their hearts tend to work at lower rates when under stress.
Barclays used this data to create a compelling advert for the Premier League you may already have seen, sporting the tag line: “we are together, for every beat.”
