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A Stanford University study has found that election results can be influenced by far seemingly trivial matters like how the local sports team perform weeks prior to the vote. That so-called “feel good factor” has been investigated by Neil Malhotra, a Professor of political economy. He told �鶹�� Sportshour presenter Caroline Barker about the findings of his study: “We investigated whether college football game results in the weekend proceeding election day influenced voting behaviour on election day. "What motivated the study was to just investigate how much emotions influence political actions. “Our data found that the effect of a college football win verses a loss prior to election day boost the incumbents vote share by between one and two percentage points in the county where the game took place. This suggests that some of how we react to politics is not purely rational, it is partly emotional as well.” Voters in America will decide on 3 November whether Republican president Donald Trump remains in the White House for another four-year term, or whether his challenger, Democratic Party nominee and former vice-president, Joe Biden, will take the top office in United States politics. Photo: Stickers are shown at Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox MLB team, which is being used as an early voting centre ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. (Credit: Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)