Submission + - Researchers Prove Everybody Loves an Underdog
Active Seti writes: "Everybody loves an underdog: Texans at the Alamo, the Greeks at Thermopylae, Apple Computer in the 1980's and 90's, or Rocky
Balboa. Those who are viewed as disadvantaged arouse our sense of fairness and justice — principles that matter to most people. Researchers also found that people tend to believe that underdogs put forth more effort than top-dogs. Although favorable evaluations disappear when underdog status no longer applies, politicians and computers can still get a lot of mileage out of underdog status as when Apple aired it's original 1984 ads — ads that have recently been copied by political campaigns. The original paper shows the methodology (pdf) used to test the premise."