Football has helped us satisfy three of our most basic human needs: gaining a sense of purpose, creating a sense of belonging, and positively influencing our social identity. What does that even mean? Let's start with a sense of belonging. We all belong somewhere: to the companies we work for, the associations we are members of, our families, and the neighborhoods we live in. I really can't tell you how important this sense of belonging is to your psychophysiological well-being, happiness, and quality of life.
Unfortunately, there are many people who have achieved great professional success and earned a lot of money, but they do not have their need for belonging met – they are alone, without a quality partner, children, or real friends. Without a single quality group of people to belong to, that success and money do not mean much to them, because they have not satisfied one of their basic needs, and they cannot essentially live a fulfilling life. They wander aimlessly, unhappy, constantly questioning the life moves they have made.
Let's continue with the concept of social identity. In short, social identity lithuania whatsapp data in psychology refers to the way we identify ourselves in comparison to others, and we look at what we have in common with them. The subject of our comparison can be age, gender, race, interests, religious, political or national affiliation. In the case of this football championship, we had something in common with no less than 4 million other individuals. Numerous studies in the field of psychology have proven that it is precisely social identity that gives us that much-needed sense of belonging that we described a moment ago, and one of its main consequences is its long-term positive impact on our self-esteem and the image we have of ourselves.
Comparing social identity with football, research has also proven that the mere fact of belonging to a “winning team” has a more intense influence on the creation of our social identity than the specific result that was achieved. Now imagine how intense this influence is when we add a good placement in the World Cup to the feeling of belonging! Perhaps this is exactly the reason why the disappointment that arose after the final very quickly turned into a very intense feeling of pride, which is the main reason why history was literally written on the day of the return of our Fire.