Speculators` Heartbeats Get Faster with Goal-scoring

Seoul`s Sejongro Street was full of football fans and thier cries in the afternoon of June 4th. Some 100,000 people got together in front of big-sized TV board to watch Korea`s first match with Poland. At that moment, how excited are they? What kind of change such excitement would bring to us?

This paper`s reporters observed the heartbeats of a couple who visited the street to watch the game. We put on a portable heartbeat measuring device on Na Sung-jae and Jung Mi-jeong. Mr.Na is one of ardent football fans joining an office football club. But his wife Ms. Jung not that interested in soccer reluctantly tagged along. While Mr.Na cried out loud for Korea`s victory, Ms.Jung responded with indifference saying "A victory would not bring on any benefits to us." But, with Hwang Sun-hong`s dramatic first goal, Mr.Na and his wife jumped up and down. At the moment, Mr.Na`s heartbeats run 175 times a minute and Ms.Jung`s heartbeat run 150 times a minute. Their average heartbeats reached 64 and 74 times, respectively, which are faster than usual by 2.73 times and 2.03 times.

At close scenes, their heartbeats run fast over 100 times per minute. Even at resting time, Mr.Na`s heartbeats rose up to 170 times. His wife recorded 155 times, higher than when the first goal was scored. And with the second goal, the street almost exploded with shouting. With the first victory ahead of them, Mr.Na`s heartbeats went up to over 175 times and Ms.Jung also recorded 160 times heartbeats. After the match finished, the people celebrated the victory crying "Korea" and "We Won" continuously. The couple also celebrated the victory by hugging each other. That is when their heartbeats recorded the highest number (178 times for Mr.Na and 161 times for Ms.Jung) that day. At 11 p.m., Mr.Na was having a cigarette on his hand saying, "My stress all disappeared." And his wife said, "You promised to cut back on your cigarettes. The winning did not give you enough satisfaction?" Now, the couple`s heartbeats went down to less than 100 times. They cried "Korea" 143 times during the 90-minute game.

Sung-Kyu Kim Seung-Jae Lee kimsk@donga.com sjda@donga.com