It’s not nice to be called stupid. Sadly, it’s a remark sports fans have to put up with regularly, because other people look down on the likes of baseball, basketball, and soccer. If you’re a wrestling supporter, BleacherReport.com reckons you’ve probably heard the slight more than most, since some people can’t understand why adults would want to watch men and women in leotards in square rings.
However, you’ll be glad to know that you finally have a response to the unfounded retort. Why? It’s because wrestling fans, specifically those who follow the WWE, are reported to be the cleverest fans in the US, according to a new study. As it turns out, you’re probably smarter than anyone who says otherwise!
What Was the Research?
The study was conducted by a betting guide company called How To Bet and included over one thousand participants. The aim was to determine the most and least intelligent fanbases. To do this, HTB worked with professional psychologists to administer a remote IQ test to 1,006 people that worked in the same way as a normal IQ test.
Once HowToBet.com conducted a study on US smartest fans and collated the results, what they found was very revealing, because WWE supporters were quite a way in front of the rest of the sporting world, excluding the NHL. WWE followers scored 112.60, the highest IQ score of every sport involved within the study. Overall, wrestling scored highly across the board, including verbal intelligence, mathematical ability, logical reasoning, and visual reasoning, leading the conductors of research to conclude them to be the most intelligent.
What About the Rest?
Most sports registered a collective IQ over 100. NASCAR was the only US sport to fail to do so, finishing the study with a score of 95.20, which is 17.40 points lower than WWE fans. MLB was only just above the threshold at 101.30, followed by the NFL (105.90), NBA (110.70), and NHL (112.30). Therefore, wrestling’s only challenger was ice hockey, while the rest were a minimum of two IQ points down.
Why Are WWE Fans So Smart?
It’s hard to come to a definitive answer. Instead, there are a couple of reasons why WWE ranked above its rivals. Continue reading to find out more about them and what they mean for the sport.
Above Average Athletes
A feature that stands out when you look at the study as a whole is the individual rankings for the athletes. It shouldn’t be surprising that Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan, two of the leading stars in the entertainment industry, are right at the top with IQs of 126.4 and 122.2, respectively.
To put these scores into perspective, anything over 116 is considered to be above average, making Reigns and Bryan very smart people. Although they need to communicate plainly, there’s evidence to suggest that the use of words and concepts is uplifting. Quite simply, WWE fans are relatively clever as they are opened up to different language and ideas week in, week out.
“Smart Fans”
“Smart fans” is an industry phrase for people who love to read everything about the sport and attempt to predict what will happen at the next event. Not only are they passionate, but they have plenty of reading materials that indulge them and subject them to different rules.
The WWE is known for its ability to switch up the entertainment to prevent it from getting old and tired. It seems that a side-effect of this is that it encourages fans to sharpen their mental skills to keep up with the changes.
So the next time you are tarred with this brush, don’t be afraid to ask the person what sports they follow before pointing them in the direction of How To Bet’s recent research!
Resources:
https://www.howtobet.com/most-intelligent-sportsfans/
