Download This PaperUnscripted Drama: Soccer Audience Response to Suspense, Surprise, and Shock
16 Pages Posted: 14 May 2020
Date Written: April 2020
Abstract
By modeling minute‐by‐minute television audience figures from English Premier League soccer matches, with close to 50,000 minute‐observations, we show that demand is partly driven by suspense and surprise. We also identify an additional relevant factor of appeal to audiences, namely shock, which refers to the difference between pre‐match and current game outcome probabilities. Suspense, surprise, and shock remain significant in the presence of a traditional measure of outcome uncertainty.
JEL Classification: C23, D12, L82, L83, Z20
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Buraimo, Babatunde and Forrest, David and McHale, Ian and Tena, Juan de Díos, Unscripted Drama: Soccer Audience Response to Suspense, Surprise, and Shock (April 2020). Economic Inquiry, Vol. 58, Issue 2, pp. 881-896, 2020, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3597054 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12874
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