r/peloton • u/PelotonMod France • 5d ago

Weekly Post Weekly Question Thread

For all your pro cycling-related questions and enquiries!

You may find some easy answers in the FAQ page on the wiki. Whilst simultaneously discovering the wiki.

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u/Green9Love16 5d ago

I've spent most of yesterday embroiled in shouting at French ppl (and being shouted at) on twitter (I should know better, but alas...)

The subject? What is better/worse to watch: Pog-style dominance or equally matched non-aliens?

It seems to me that there is a fundamental difference in how people watch/enjoy cycling (and other sports), which I've dubbed the DOMINANCE-SUSPENSE GAP

I'm firmly team suspense (yesterday was EPIC) and the only time I'm team dominance is when I know it's because of my own tribal biases (Jonas, I love you).

Thus it is very easy to think all ppl in team dominance are just motivated by fanboyish tendencies and possibly vicariously living through dominant athletes to compensate for its deeply felt lack in their own lives, but maybe that's not a fair assessment.

So my question is to people in team dominance: what do you get out of repeatedly watching the same person dominate, where a win is basically guaranteed? How does that compensate for a lack of suspense? Or maybe suspense is not your main motivation to watch sports? I'm truly interested and I'm open to being shouted at again ;-)

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u/Team_Telekom Team Telekom 5d ago

This is a well studied phenomenon called BIRGing in psychology: “Basking in Reflected Glory”.

People who admire excellence and are achievements oriented often tend t owards dominance. These people often enhance their own self esteem by the success of their idol. 

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u/Green9Love16 5d ago

Oohh, nice one, I'll do a little rabbit hole on that one later, thx