Negative emotions concentrate while positive emotions diffuse in football fan rivalries

Background Research on negativity bias demonstrates that negative information receives disproportionate cognitive attention at the individual level, but how this psychological mechanism shapes collective emotional patterns remains unclear. We investigate whether communities systematically concentrate negative emotions on fewer targets while distributing positive emotions more broadly. Methods We analyze 36,223 German football fans’ reports of loved and hated clubs, measuring attention concentration using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). We distinguish between outgoing concentration (how communities allocate their own attention) and incoming concentration (how attention from others focuses on particular targets), testing whether concentration differs between positive and negative affect. Results Negative attention was significantly more concentrated than positive attention for both outgoing (M = 0.36 vs M = 0.23, p < 0.001) and incoming ties (M = 0.41 vs M = 0.33, p = 0.011). Love and hate concentration are weakly correlated (r = 0.26–0.32), indicating independent processes. Structural factors predict incoming but not outgoing concentration (Pseudo R 2 = 0.14–0.35 vs R 2 = 0.47–0.49), revealing asymmetric mechanisms of attention allocation versus attraction. Conclusions Communities face cognitive constraints that produce systematic asymmetries in how they distribute emotional attention. These findings highlight how cognitive constraints shape collective emotional structures, with implications for political polarization, consumer behavior, and conflict dynamics.