Football games make us angry
Some people at least. Daniel Rees writes to me:
…we find that college football games are associated with sharp increases in crime. For instance, assaults increase by about 9% when a community hosts a college football game, vandalism increases by about 18%, and DUIs increase by about 13%. We also find evidence that upsets result in larger increases in crime than games that do not produce an upset. For instance, an upset loss at home is associated with a 112% increase in assaults and a 61% increase in vandalism. We discuss these results in the context of psychological theories of fan aggression.
Here is the paper. I guess those people should have gone to see a violent movie instead!
Addendum: Here is some outside coverage, see also Justin Wolfers at Freakonomics blog as well.