Some of the reactions I've read regarding how people think and what they would do about booing is actually worse than the booing itself!
hahahah
My first experience of booing at a sporting event.. I think it was Australia vs Pakistan one day international at the Gabba, many many years ago. Back when there was the outer, the greyhound race track, the old scoreboard. A stinking hot day and a full house of rowdy passionate cricket fans (no internet back then, so everyone had to actually leave the house and do things for entertainment). There'd be lots of 'Mexican waves' at certain times of the day.. and other crowd interactive activities. In some ways this was more fun, than the cricket itself. The waves were fun, but the problem would be that everytime the wave would go around, it'd always stop and die at the members area. So then, you'd have 3/4 of the crowd booing the members stand, and chanting "members are wankers".
I guess the point is, I've never taken it very seriously. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's not. But I don't see it as a big thing, and if I were with a girl and she started booing.. I wouldn't "return home without her", I'd like her even more, that she could be so emotionally invested in a sport or the players. Instead of pretending to be, but actually being bored. Maybe I'm just odd.
I don't see it as a big thing. For me, it's a part of the sporting experience, and I don't think it's worth taking seriously. People smile, people frown. Crowds cheer, crowds boo. Maybe it's a cultural thing or it is more personal in certain situations though. In a tennis match for example, or in F1.. where you are clearly booing one person.. maybe it's more personal. In WWE, they'd want you to boo. Whether someone is liked or hated, it's an emotional reaction and it's something. In F1 it's a bit different.. I honestly haven't thought about it much. F1 is a rare sport where it travels all around the world. Every race is a different language/culture and on most tracks the crowd doesn't even really have a presence. In some ways F1 is so commercial and corporate, it's barely a sport at all. Wouldn't surprise me if there is someone beyond parc ferme who says "that boo just cost us 112k car sales in the next 12 months". But then there's the Howard Stern thing, he became one of the most controversial and most listened to radio hosts by being over the top, going against that corporate sort of mindset. And a lot of the people that would listen, didn't like him or hated him, yet they'd still listen and make him more famous. "Any attention is good attention" and the negative feedback would be just as good as the positive and would generate more interest, more profit etc. How many radio hosts have a movie made about their life? Getting a bit off topic now..
But even when crowds boo the referee in football, it's not personal. They would boo regardless of who that referee is, and it's a part of home advantage and can help sway the games. Makes for a more lively exciting atmosphere than everyone in suit and tie sitting in silence. At one point in human history, people would get in a crowd and cheer as they sat and watched lions eat people. That was worse.