A Goat, a Curse, and the Fans Who Died Waiting

In November 2016, the brick walls around Wrigley Field were covered in chalk: hundreds of names, some of them fans who died waiting for the Chicago Cubs to win again. Why do fans believe in curses? We follow the Billy Goat legend of 1945, Boston's Curse of the Bambino after the sale of Babe Ruth, and what psychology says about rituals, lucky charms and the stories fans tell when nothing works. CHAPTERS 0:00 The Chalk Wall at Wrigley Field 1:40 The Billy Goat Legend 3:19 Boston and Babe Ruth 4:49 Why Fans Need Rituals 6:07 The Lucky Ball Experiment 7:33 What the Curse Was Really For A note on the science: these studies looked at students, office workers and basketball fans, not at Cubs or Red Sox fans. They are analogies, not proof about these fans. The 2010 "lucky ball" effect did not replicate in a larger, pre-registered 2014 study. SOURCES Studies Langer (1975), J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 32(2): https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.32.... Klusowski, Small & Simmons (2021), Psychological Science 32(2): https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620958009 Keinan (1994), J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 67(1): https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.... Keinan (2002), Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 28(1): https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202281009 Wann et al. (2013), Athletic Insight 5(1) [1,661 students] Wann & Dolan (1994), J. Soc. Psychol. 134(6): https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1994... Damisch, Stoberock & Mussweiler (2010), Psychological Science 21(7): https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610372631 Calin-Jageman & Caldwell (2014), Social Psychology 45(3): https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a00... Risen (2016), Psychological Review 123(2): https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000017 PRRI sports poll, January 2014: https://prri.org/research/jan-2014-sp... Events 1945 Game 4 and the goat (SABR): https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/octob... The Curse of the Billy Goat, first printed in 1967 (SABR): https://sabr.org/research/article/the... Sale of Babe Ruth, Frazee quote (Boston Globe, 6 Jan 1920): https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/19... "Babe Ruth Curse Strikes Again" (New York Times, Oct 1986, George Vecsey): https://www.georgevecsey.com/home/how... Wayne Williams at his father's grave (AP, 3 Nov 2016): https://www.foxnews.com/sports/cubs-f... Chalk walls cleared, "Chalk is a fleeting medium" (DNAinfo, 7 Nov 2016): https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20161... More sources: in the replies to the pinned comment. PHOTO AND VIDEO CREDITS (Wikimedia Commons and Flickr; adapted: cropped, blurred, tinted, animated) David Wilson, Arturo Pardavila III, Erik Drost, Paul Sableman, vxla (Eric Pancer), Jonathan Lurie, Dan Perry, Chris J, Marlin Keesler, Ron Cogswell, kenji ross, CC BY 2.0 Delaywaves, HalloweenHJB, Hugh Devlin, CC BY 3.0 Joe Goldberg, Ken Curtis, thisisbossi, CC BY-SA 2.0 Anthony 22, DPic, Uwe Dedering (map, Natural Earth data), CC BY-SA 3.0 Raimond Spekking, SecretName101, CC BY-SA 4.0 Public domain: Library of Congress (National Photo Company, Bain News Service, Chicago Daily News, Keystone View Company, Carol M. Highsmith), Boston Public Library (incl. Tichnor Brothers Collection), NARA (John H. White, Documerica), Voice of America, George R. Lawrence, Baseball Bugs, Donmike10 Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ (by/2.0, by/3.0, by-sa/2.0, by-sa/3.0, by-sa/4.0) Thumbnail photos: "Staring goat" by Ali (Flickr), CC BY 2.0, adapted; Babe Ruth, 1919, National Photo Company, Library of Congress (public domain) Credits by chapter: in the replies to the pinned comment. AUDIO Narration, sound effects and music: AI-generated with ElevenLabs. Quotes are read by the narrator. Crowd, rain and ambient sounds are illustrative, not recordings of the events shown. Outro music: synthesized by the channel. Paper and fog textures: Resource Boy. Apparently Athletic explores the big questions behind sport: the fans, the money, the identity. Subscribe for the next one. #SportsPsychology #ChicagoCubs #SportsCurses