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Why Do Fans of Winning Sports Teams Riot? Chalk It Up to Mob Mentality.

The San Francisco Giants are World Series champions. To celebrate, hundreds of fans took to the streets to vandalize their city. One expert explains the riots by describing how individuals take advantage of a “cloak of crowd anonymity” to behave badly.
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As is so often the case (and puzzlingly so), fans of a championship team took to the streets last night to torch furniture, break windows, and commit acts of vandalism across their city. While Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants celebrated their World Series Game 7 victory in Kansas City, revelers back in California were not only causing a ruckus, but posting about it on social media:

Currently getting ready to go riot in San Francisco for the Giants.

— Zik Krtly (@ZacharyKirtley) October 30, 2014

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