Sports fans may have more in common with political partisans than you might think — specifically, a home-team bias that shapes what they believe to be true about the world.
As a result, the beliefs of fans — or partisans — who know the most about a particular controversy are often more polarized, not less. It’s true in politics, science and, perhaps surprisingly, sports.
That’s what my colleagues and I found when we examined what the public believes about the ball-deflation controversy that started in last season’s N.F.L. playoffs and that is likely to continue to provoke further debate this week before Sunday night’s game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts.