Scientific study has highlighted that one of those techniques was put in place to act like an early warning system. To help make the avoidance of danger more likely, the brain has learnt to be more susceptible to negativity than it is to positivity.
Substantially more electrical activity shows that we are more affected by a bad experience than we are from a good one.
When man first walked the earth, this clever tactic was a necessity for survival, to be more empathic to danger meant you stood a greater chance of avoiding it.
However, this stone-age vulnerability alarm has been carried over into modern life and the brain still implements this to everything we do, from our working life and personal relationships to leisure activities such as watching sports.
Modern society now looks for negativity more than we really need to and because of that early pre-programmed bias, we add more weight to that negativity.
Research has suggested that a ratio of around 5-1 in favour of positive experiences leads to a better outlook, so a run of bad results for a football team can certainly impact on how a supporter will judge future events.
More negativity, even lots of seemingly little ones, will ensure that future positives, large or small, are minimalised and that a less favourable mindset will remain.
An occasional bit of good news, even a substantial one like a win over the best team in the country when your team is not playing well themselves, will not halt a predetermined negative bias.
A long run of positivity—or a good stretch of wins for your football team—will tilt the balance back towards a more favourable outlook for the club's followers. In turn, this restores belief to the fans, and they become more positive and, importantly, more supportive of the players and manager.
But at this point, the team do not need that support half as much as they did. The support was needed more when the players were down on their luck, and the fans were too busy with their negativity bias.