Can a World Cup run drive interest in a nation? New study finds evidence of the 'Flutie Effect' off the field
In addition, an analysis of world-wide online sentiment toward Morocco—expressed on social media posts—found that feelings toward the country went from close-to-neutral in the month prior to the World Cup to a nearly 150% increase in positive sentiment during the month-long competition. While the increase in positive attention was not surprising given the team's extraordinary and unexpected performance, did it have any impact beyond the field?
Predictably, searches related specifically to the World Cup increased during the competition—but so did those linked to travel and food. Notably, among Moroccan cuisines, couscous and tajine maintained heightened popularity after the World Cup concluded—couscous with an increase of over 90% in comparison to its pre-World Cup popularity, followed by tajine with an 81% increase.
The study's other authors included members of Bari's AI research group in NYU's Department of Computer Science: Edward Hou, Charles Wang, Caitlyn Cui, Emos Ker, Alex Manko, Nawaf Alabdullah, Ali Alshehhi, Kelly Lawlor, Sebastian Straesser, and Advait Abrol.