Study: Underdogs suck.

So much for the New York Mutts' chances in 2010. From LiveScience:

In spite of the Saints' come-from-behind victory Sunday, underdogs aren't actually more motivated to win. In fact, a new study finds the opposite is true, with favored teams working harder to beat lower-ranked competitors.

Makes sense, as the high-status team has more to lose. "If you're the lower-status group and lose to your superior rival, nothing has changed – it just reaffirms the way things are," said study researcher Robert Lount, assistant professor of management and human resources at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.

The results come from five studies of college students. Participants had to complete simple tasks, such as crossing out all the vowels they could in a string of words within a set period of time. They were told a group of students from another college were also completing the task.

Competing schools' logos were at the top of the worksheets, so participants knew the competition. Opposing colleges were similarly ranked, lower ranked, or higher ranked, than participants' school (based on U.S. News and World Report rankings).

The vowel-crossing race was on.

Students scored similarly when pitted against either higher-ranked or similarly ranked teams. The motivation seemed to kick in when Goliath took on David: Students completed about 30 percent more cross-outs when the competitor's logo belonged to lower-ranked schools than their superiors.