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Why Do We Root For The Underdog? – Vicky Giap

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My two favorite girl groups had comeback last month. Aespa is backed by Korea’s biggest entertainment powerhouse, and all their tracks are created by top producers. Meanwhile G-Idle is from a smaller company, writes their own songs, comes up with their own concepts. I found myself checking their stats every day, wishing that G-Idle’s song would have more streams and more views than Aespa’s… and was ecstatic when it did. Similarly, as I was watching the Roland Garros 2023 I consistently found myself rooting for tennis players with lower rankings, rejoicing as Muchova (#43 at time of playing, #16 now) beat Sabalenka (#2) or Cerúndolo (#23) beat Fritz (#9). And I wasn’t alone. Daniel Engber summarizes it brilliantly in an article on Slate: Which made me wonder… My personal take is that it’s related to our desire for fairness. In a world that favors the rich and privileged, underdogs winning creates the illusion that we’re in a meritocracy where anyone can succeed as based on talent and ha

My two favorite girl groups had comeback last month. Aespa is backed by Korea’s biggest entertainment powerhouse, and all their tracks are created by top producers. Meanwhile G-Idle is from a smaller company, writes their own songs, comes up with their own concepts. I found myself checking their stats every day, wishing that G-Idle’s song would have more streams and more views than Aespa’s… and was ecstatic when it did. Aespa is a 4th generation girl group from SM Entertainment – one of South Korea’s “Big 3” entertainment powerhouses, credited wi

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