Human's devotion to and for their champions, limitless.

[Grits]

Vic Zast writes for the Horserace Insider, one of the most well thought out pieces I've read in quite some time. Not anything he states in the column can be denied--including observations on Barbaro, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta.

Very astute, and extremely well done!

http://www.horseraceinsider.com/Zasts-TrackWords/comments/2010-11-15psycho-talk/#comments

Wendi Gardner, an associate professor of psychology at Northwestern University, believes that the over-the-top fan worship for Zenyatta has to do with belonging. She believes that the Zenyatta fans may have attached to a group and are finding identity within the group. They are, as a matter of fact, not dissimilar from faithful TV viewers who become attached to the characters of a popular show such as Friends, for which the audience would live and die with each challenge that the cast faced.

“Getting devoted either to a person or character, or in this case an animal, is a fairly common phenomenon. It’s called parasocial attachment,” Gardner explained in a telephone interview. When asked why the fans of the once-beaten mare often overstepped the facts when defending Zenyatta, Gardner answered, “We, as humans, throw out logic when evaluating, protecting or defending those we love.” About the insults the Zeniacs lob at people with dissimilar opinions, she then added, “Even though this seems to make no sense because these people have no real relationship with this horse in any way, their emotional attachment to the horse, like you’d have for a child, would explain the over-emotional protection they display in their behavior.”

[DJofSD]

Thank God for parasocial attachment.

[Tom]

About the insults the Zeniacs lob at people with dissimilar opinions, she then added,

What do they call the opposite - the incessent need to attack those who voice positive comments. Zeniacs? How about Zast-holes? Rolls off the tongue.

[BluegrassProf]

I noted this piece a couple of days ago (now probably long-lost in one of the several superthreads - two days for those threads translates to like 135,000 crazyposts). Interesting stuff, particularly through the Barbaro lens: ever met one of the more hyperactive "Friends of Barbaro?"

Yowza...

In this particular piece, I do think Vic [noticeably] fails to discuss a major contributor to the fray over which he opines - turf media - but hey, he's a turf writer. We can only expect so much... ;)

Boiling the current experience down to pretty basic parasocial attachment is also an ever-so-slight oversimplification, I think - as a sociologist in a former life, I think the attachment in Zen's case is more likely the result of a convergence of factors, from gender to groupthink to socially-constructed savior-longing (stuff psychologists tend to minimize in favor of individual/internal factors), but hey - the point is completely valid.

(As I mentioned earlier, note the comments...#27 is fabtastic... :D )

[Tom]

Or maybe just people have just enjoyed her career.
And maybe she is the best THEY have ever seen.

[Grits]

Boiling the current experience down to pretty basic parasocial attachment is also an ever-so-slight oversimplification, I think - as a sociologist in a former life

Aw c'mon, BGP,:lol: you ever met a shrink yet that didn't go through the entire alphabet getting from point A to point B, for the sole purpose of billing? What is it now $175--$200. per hour, at least?

This is why I liked the piece, it was BASIC. Basic is good. Basic is concise.

Why write a thesis when one can say the same in one page, or better, one paragraph?

[BluegrassProf]

Or maybe just people have just enjoyed her career.
And maybe she is the best THEY have ever seen.Right. None of that crazy-pants stuff is actually goin' on. I'm right there with ya. :ThmbUp:

Badoom-crash!Aw c'mon, BGP,:lol: you ever met a shrink yet that didn't go through the entire alphabet getting from point A to point B, for the sole purpose of billing? What is it now $175--$200. per hour, at least?

This is why I liked the piece, it was BASIC. Basic is good. Basic is concise.

Why write a thesis when one can say the same in one page, or better, one paragraph? :D Indeed...basic is great! I'm just one of those difficult soc people - Tom knows that, I betcha!

Acourse, it's an academic talking here, so her time's worth about 8cents an hour...Vic needs to drop me a call. I gots all sorts o' stuff to talk about...

[Tom]

All I know about you is your inability to interact socially. Your replies to many posts have displayed a child-like mental state that cannot be excused with emoticons. Say, is there a name for that?

[BluegrassProf]

All I know about you is your inability to interact socially. Your replies to many posts have displayed a child-like mental state that cannot be excused with emoticons. Say, is there a name for that?In your case? You betcha, T-dawg!

Projection.

:ThmbUp:

(C'mon, sweet-baby-T...in all seriousness: the irony of chiding immaturity by getting all wound up and personal is almost too much to take. You're totally bigger than that, I'm sure of it!)

[Tom]

Clueless.

[DJofSD]

Clueless.
Is that a Freudian term? Or is that Jung?

[PaceAdvantage]

Is there any possible way to prevent threads from degrading like this in the future? Doesn't anyone have any self control?

[DJofSD]

Is there any possible way to prevent threads from degrading like this in the future? Doesn't anyone have any self control?
That's definitely in Skinner's domain.

[BluegrassProf]

That's definitely in Skinner's domain.Aha! A man after my own socio-psychological and criminological heart!


(Good grief, this is such niche humor...I love it... :D )

[BluegrassProf]

Vic's timely follow-up:

Riding the Third Rail
http://www.horseraceinsider.com/zasts-fastwords/2010-11-18riding-the-third-rail/

The readers’ response to the recent column I wrote entitled “Psycho Talk” is not surprising to me. As a matter of fact, the sentiments expressed are consistent with the phenomenon I wrote about. I consider my piece an affirmation that passion is good for the sport. My closing paragraph is clear about how I think about that.

Even though the public reporting of the fans’ over-zealous attachment to certain horses has been largely ignored by the media (for obvious reasons), it does not mean that the topic should not be researched, understood and written about. ...

If a reader remains objective, I believe he will read far more in “Psycho Talk” that honors the legacies of Barbaro, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta than tears them down. ...