Think about how a lot of fans speak about their teams.
"How did the Bulls do last night?"
"We won, but just barely."
Part of being a fan is vicarious competition, both against the other team and the other teams' fans.
"How did the Bulls do last night?"
"We won, but just barely."
Part of being a fan is vicarious competition, both against the other team and the other teams' fans.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3890601/
In a sentence, "Participants that watched sports every day were at higher risk of obesity [odds ratio = 1.39, 95% CI, 1.15, 1.68) after adjustment for age, sex, smoking, alcohol, physical activity, total TV time, disability, and self-rated health."
Based on what they're controlling for, and assuming that the conclusions hold, my guess would be that watching sports on TV is also associated with increased snacking.