4. It’s more exciting

In line with #5, we find it a lot more exciting when we root for someone who doesn’t have the strongest odds of winning. Who would you rather have: a triangle-defense oriented team like Alaska during Tim Cone’s heyday, or a devil-may-care Ginebra team helmed by Robert Jaworski, who came from Red Auerbach’s school of coaching in the age of more sophisticated methods? It’s not even a contest.

3. We relate more with the underdog

Regardless of our stage in life, we always see ourselves as the underdog in our life story. Just ask certain politicians, who, in the face of having fortunes of hundreds of millions of pesos to their name, still manage to eke out a sob story about their humble beginnings when they only had tens of millions to work with.

If we are all underdogs in our mind, then a true underdog fights for us and we vicariously live through them.

2. It tells us there is karmic justice in this universe

We hate it when the powerful get away with everything. That’s why when the underdog notches an improbable victory, it renews our belief that maybe, just maybe, the world is as fair as we hope it would be.

1. We’ve culturally been underdogs

Fighting against civilizations that had access to gunpowder? Being occupied by other nations thrice over the course of almost four centuries? Putting up with being pawns in the political games of the nation’s elite? We’ve been underdogs all our lives, and it does the heart good when one of us breaks free from the glass ceiling to get the just rewards we all believe we’ve earned.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Sound off in the comments below!

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