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The persuasive impact of athlete racial advocacy on individuals’ cognitive responses: evidence from survey experiments in Japan
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This article explores the role of social media in athlete activism and sport commodification through the case studies of two elite multiracial athletes who represent Japan, professional tennis player Naomi Osaka and professional basketball player Rui Hachimura. Osaka’s mother is Japanese and her father is Haitian-American, whereas Hachimura’s mother is Japanese and his father is Beninese. Employing critical discourse analysis of Twitter and Instagram, we ask: How do they use social media to amplify their voices and advocacy for race and ethnicity? How do their athlete activism and multiracial identity appeal to fans and sponsors? We argue that social media lend them various ways for resistance through defying monoracial labeling and racialized sport stereotypes, manifesting their multiracial identity, speaking up against social justice issues, and affiliating with certain sponsors. We demonstrate how their “silent activism” is subtle, situated in everyday life, and not antithetical to the commodification of their (athlete-activist) image.
Outdoor winter sports sit on the frontlines of climate change, with athletes subject to increasingly unsafe, unfair and non-ideal competition and training conditions as a result. With athletes’ livelihoods and the future of winter sports on the line, this research investigates if and how winter athletes use their position as public figures, celebrities and role models to challenge the hegemonic structures in sports and society driving climate change. Framed through the broad athlete-activism literature, this study used a qualitative survey of 390 elite winter-sport athletes and coaches combined with eight key stakeholder interviews to understand athlete climate activism. Results demonstrate that winter athletes’ climate action is generally low risk constituting advocacy rather than activism. Athletes express fear of being called out as hypocritical for their high-carbon sport and lifestyle, insecurity over their level of climate education and frustration with the lack of climate action from international- and national-level winter-sport organizations. Scholarly, grassroots and sport-based activism may help athletes engage more effectively in climate activism within and beyond sport.
Binge drinking is a major public health concern on college campuses and shares a deep connection to sporting culture. As such, student-athletes are potential referent points for addressing this destructive behavior among the student body. This study utilizes the theoretical frameworks of the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and parasocial relationships (PSRs) to investigate the effects that student-athletes’ health advocacy has on college students’ attitudinal and behavioral intentions to binge drink. Analysis of data collected from 161 college students, who met the clinical definition of binge drinkers, indicated that issue involvement was associated with more favorable attitudes and the intention to continue drinking, and a disregard for student-athlete health advocacy. Greater degrees of source involvement (i.e., PSR), with depicted student-athletes, however, was found to positively affect elaboration and indirectly foster behavioral intentions to cease binge drinking. Results enhance our understanding of the ELM by suggesting source involvement – as opposed to issue involvement – can be an effective means of encouraging elaboration and decreasing college students’ behavioral intentions to binge drink.
This paper examines the criminal justice activism of tennis star Naomi Osaka as it evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding matters of police violence and racial justice. Calls to reform and defund the police received much attention in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020. The Floyd killing also motivated Naomi Osaka to begin her criminal justice activism, which has generally been very well received. Adopting a constructionist perspective, I investigate how Osaka’s criminal justice activism has, in the broader context of the development of celebrity culture, been subjectively motivated and inter-subjectively received by the public and in the news media. Theoretically this paper has the two-fold objective of developing a model of the conditions favorable to the successful reception of celebrity activism and, additionally, of suggesting how such criminologically relevant activism can be understood in terms of a process of celebritization of criminal justice and police reform as causes worthy of attention. This case study of Osaka’s criminal justice activism reveals the important role a celebrity can play in influencing public sentiments about key aspects of policing and crime control as an important element of criminal justice culture. (Click on the DOI link for full paper!)
Objective
Political and social elite rhetoric can have a robust impact on individuals’ policy stances, particularly when recipients of persuasive messages share an in‐group identity with the messenger and when the information is counter‐stereotypical. In this study, we build on Harrison and Michelson's (2017) theory of dissonant identity priming (TDIP) and examine an understudied topic, the effectiveness of National Football League (NFL) elite pro‐immigration statements in shifting individuals’ perspectives on immigration topics.
Methods
We explore this question using two unique randomized survey experiments, one conducted face‐to‐face with residents of Winston‐Salem, North Carolina, and one using a national Internet‐based sample.
Results
We find little support for our expectation that counter‐stereotypical messages on immigration and immigrants delivered by NFL elites can be effective in shaping the views of their shared in‐groups (those who are NFL fans or those who share their race).
Conclusion
While TDIP can explain individuals’ shift in support of same‐sex marriage, we cannot say the same for the effectiveness of sports elites’ statements on immigration and immigrants.
Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, opted to kneel during the American National Anthem throughout the 2016 NFL season as a symbolic protest against racial injustice and police brutality throughout the United States. His actions provoked criticism when the media focused on Kaepernick’s alleged unpatriotic and anti-military stance. Using the concept of media framing, this paper analyses the newspaper coverage of Kaepernick’s protest. We identify four key frames which can be scrutinized and understood using the theoretical framework of the protest paradigm. In an innovative approach the research also analyses the coverage of Kaepernick in 2020, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a police officer, which sparked worldwide anti-racism protests. This paper builds on the understanding of media framing towards an individual’s protest and the consequences they face.
The use of survey experiments has surged in political science. The most common design is the between-subjects design in which the outcome is only measured posttreatment. This design relies heavily on recruiting a large number of subjects to precisely estimate treatment effects. Alternative designs that involve repeated measurements of the dependent variable promise greater precision, but they are rarely used out of fears that these designs will yield different results than a standard design (e.g., due to consistency pressures). Across six studies, we assess this conventional wisdom by testing experimental designs against each other. Contrary to common fears, repeated measures designs tend to yield the same results as more common designs while substantially increasing precision. These designs also offer new insights into treatment effect size and heterogeneity. We conclude by encouraging researchers to adopt repeated measures designs and providing guidelines for when and how to use them.
This open access short reader provides a state of the art overview of the discrimination research field, with particular focus on discrimination against immigrants and their descendants. It covers the ways in which discrimination is defined and conceptualized, how it is measured, how it may be theorized and explained, and how it might be combated by legal and policy means. The book also presents empirical results from studies of discrimination across the world to show the magnitude of the problem and the difficulties of comparison across national borders. The concluding chapter engages in a critical discussion of the relationship between discrimination and integration as well as pointing out promising directions for future studies. As such this short reader is a valuable read to undergraduate students, as well as graduate students, scholars, policy makers and the general public.
Dehumanizing language, or language used to describe human beings as non-human entities, is increasingly prevalent in political life. This dehumanization also occurs frequently in the world of sports. Sports and politics intersected notably in 2016, when Colin Kaepernick of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers started protesting the national anthem to raise awareness about police violence against African-Americans. Kaepernick’s protests generated considerable vitriol towards him and other protesters, some of which was dehumanizing. In this study, I examine how dehumanizing language used against anthem protesters of different races influences political attitudes. Using experimental data, I find that, when a Black player protesting the national anthem is dehumanized, White citizens are considerably less supportive of the anthem protests and protesters. This effect does not persist when the dehumanized player is White.
Recent protests by athletes focused on raising awareness of social issues and injustices, such as the Black Lives Matter protests led by Colin Kaepernick of the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers, have generated a great deal of attention and debate within society. Notably, the protests conducted by these players before games in the 2016 and 2017 seasons became such a sensational topic, that extraordinary amounts of attention was paid to it by the media, consumers, and even politicians who often denounced the players as being unpatriotic. Against this backdrop, the current research examines whether fluctuations in attendance at National Football League games are associated with explicit attitudes towards race, implicit racial prejudice, and racial animus within a population. Specifically, using multiple measures of racial attitudes as part of an econometric model estimating attendance at games, the results suggest that having a higher level of implicit bias in a market leads to a decline in consumer interest in attending games. Additionally, using interaction effects, it is found that while protests generally reduced the negative effects of implicit bias on attendance, markets with lower levels of implicit bias actually had greater declines of attendance during the protests. From this, the current study advances the understanding of racial attitudes and racial animus, and its impact on consumer behavior at the regional level. That is, this research highlights that racial sentiments in a local market were able to predict changes in market behaviors, suggesting that race relations can have wide reaching impacts.
As news media mainly focused on issues of nationalism, many people perceive Colin Kaepernick as unpatriotic, even though his protest was about police brutality and social justice. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate how people perceive athlete activism relative to news media framing and to examine the effects of athlete activism on endorsed brands. Two experimental design studies were conducted. Results indicate that news media influenced individuals’ attitudes toward the protesting athlete. Additionally, prior perceptions of the protesting athlete and the brand were significantly associated with attitudes toward the protesting athlete and the endorsed brand regardless of the news media framing conditions. A strong positive relationship between the protesting athlete and the endorsed brand was found. Participants with more positive attitudes toward the protesting athlete had more positive attitudes toward the brand endorsed by the athlete.
Why do some issues make it on to the public agenda while others do not? While this question has received a great deal of research attention, a definitive answer remains elusive. In this paper, I conduct a posttest only, control group survey experiment to test the hypothesis that popular celebrities can increase the chances that an issue jumps from the media agenda to the public agenda by speaking out publicly about the importance of the issue. My results confirm the hypothesis. By “spotlighting” certain issues, popular celebrities can indeed affect which issues reach the public agenda.
Despite its increasing prevalence in sports at all levels of competition, there is a startling paucity of research on
athlete activism and its broader impact on social and political change. Furthermore, athletes who engage in
sport-based political protest – many of whom hold one or more traditionally marginalized identities – often face
vicious public backlash. In order to support the role of sport psychologists and other mental health professionals
in responding to this issue, there is a need to deepen our understanding of the many views and opinions people
hold toward athlete activism, whether they be athletes, coaches, sport psychologists, or the broader public. To
stimulate further research on this topic, we developed the Attitudes Toward Athlete Activism Questionnaire
(ATAAQ) as a measure of reactions toward athlete political behavior in sport across a range of competitive levels
(e.g., professional, collegiate, high school). An initial pool of 40 items was administered to a total sample of 713
participants, recruited from social media and online sport-related forums. Exploratory and confirmatory factor
analyses yielded a 19-item scale comprising five-factors: affective reactions (five items), perceived conflict with
team (four items), athlete role (three items), lack of political qualifications/credibility (three items), and desired
consequences or punishments (four items). Internal consistency estimates for the ATAAQ factors were 0.88 and
above. We established initial evidence for convergent, criterion-related, and predictive validity, as ATAAQ scores
were correlated in expected directions with scores on personal activism orientation, belief in a just world, and
attitudes toward social justice. Strengths, limitations, and implications for research and practice are discussed.
An exploratory qualitative study was conducted to examine how young adults perceive the mechanism of creation and the influence of celebrity endorsement in public services advertising. Face-to-face interviews were carried out with 29 persons aged 18 to 24 recruited through a quota sampling. Interviewees were asked to recall a government public services advertisement with celebrity endorsement, and report why they found them memorable. Results indicated that the main reasons for finding the advertisements memorable were attributed more to slogans, repetition, and personal relevance than to the performances of the celebrities. Interviewees expected celebrities in PSA to be morally sound. Interviewees perceived strongly that self-interest motivates celebrities to appear in social services advertisements. Based on the results, public services marketers should put emphasis on visual and verbal elements of PSA. Efforts should be made to recruit celebrities that are close to the public. Ficitious characters may be explored in the future as an alternative to celebrity endorsement in the PSA context.
Mental illness remains stigmatized in the United States and abroad, with the mass media often blamed for perpetuating stereotypes about people who experience mental health issues. 2018 witnessed two professional basketball players—star athletes DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love—disclosing personal experiences with depression and anxiety. Informed by social cognitive and framing theories, the present study examined how news stories characterized the disclosures, examining ways in which journalists presented the athletes as mental health advocates and models for pro-health attitudes and behavior. News stories generally framed the athletes as demonstrating character strength for disclosing mental illness in an athletic culture that often stigmatizes any potential weakness. Journalists often permitted the athletes to directly share their message concerning mental health with readers, as DeRozan and Love discussed (a) the experience of coming out; (b) the positive reception of teammates, coaches, and the public; and (c) the need for an end to mental health–oriented stigma. Stories often called for action, communicating to readers that people with mental illness are “not alone” and should share their experiences with others. The results provide the foundation for research into the relationship between media exposure and mental health–related attitudes, particularly how news framing of athletes’ disclosures shape fan attitudes toward mental health treatment, mental illness, and people who experience mental illness.
Scholarly debate on the unique characteristics of sport management continues, with much of the dialogue focusing on the sport product, the relationship between sport and external stakeholders (e.g. fans, government, leagues), as well as the unique role that fans and winning play in the delivery of sport. In offering a new lens from which to approach the academic argument, the authors suggest that sport is unique because it serves as a site for coaches and athletes to resist and persist through their activist efforts. To support this position, they (a) articulate the significance of sport in society for fans and non-fans, alike; (b) demonstrate how, because of the relevance of sport in society, coaches and athletes have taken on celebrity status, and as a result, are likely to engage in activism and resistance; and (c) propose these activities then result in societal change. Noting the importance of moderators, the authors also suggest that coach and athlete demographics, their social justice orientation, and the context in which they operate are all likely to influence the relationship between celebrity status and activism and resistance. The effectiveness of their message is likely to vary based on their credibility and the involvement and demographics of the message receiver. The authors offer theoretical and practical implications.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to protest the national anthem of the United States by taking a knee sparked widespread attention, much of it negative. This research examines the mainstream media coverage of Kaepernick’s protest. Our analysis identified an overarching theme that permeated all coverage: a focus on the method of protest (kneeling) versus the message of the protest (social justice). More specifically, we uncovered six interrelated frames that can be examined and understood through the theoretical lens of the protest paradigm: Kaepernick himself; individual action; virality; power and influence; professional risk; and deflection and distraction. By understanding these frames, we can begin to develop a better understanding of how individual actors—including athletes—can use their platforms to raise awareness and spark discussions around important issues, using their celebrity to amplify voices that otherwise might go unheard, as well as the possible consequences of those actions.
The purpose of this study was to examine the framing and re-framing of activism efforts enacted by LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony during the 2016 ESPYS through the theoretical lens of critical race theory. Specifically, comments made to three posts on ESPN’s Facebook page pertaining to these calls for activism were analyzed. Qualitative coding of 10,658 comments led to the discovery of four primary themes including (a) discussing race; (b) law enforcement accountability; (c) realities of violence; and (d) debating crime. While the athletes (i.e. the messengers) engaging in activism received attention via Facebook comments, users focused significant attention on the messages being disseminated. Ultimately, this social media discourse illuminated the complex nature of race relations in the United States today, highlighting the persistence of deeply ingrained cultural stereotypes and beliefs that are often left unshaken by athlete activism.
This study examines the market disruption of college football protests, under the belief the ability of market disruption can play a significant role for activism movements to challenge authority as well as expand opportunity for social change. Specifically considering game attendance as an important form of market demand, it employs regression modeling to analyze the relationship between game attendance and protests organized to struggle against racial injustices by football players at four Division I Football Bowl Subdivision programs. The results from the empirical models suggest that voting demographics of the local market a team plays in have a significant relationship with attendance after a protest, with some schools experiencing declines in consumer interest. As such, the present study seeks to advance the current inquiry of athlete activism through an economic lens, which contributes to further discussions on the empowerment of athletes and their roles in social activism.
Although advocacy and activism have been discussed in communication literature, are important in society, and often aid in organizational success, conceptual definitions and valid measurement of the concepts are lacking. By searching the literature, seeking two rounds of expert feedback, and employing two surveys ( N = 1,300) for scale development, this study advances a new measurement model of behavior that may be useful for future research and practice. The findings support six distinct factors of behavioral advocacy and activism, three representing advocacy and three representing activism. The behaviors are communicative, collective, and combative in nature. Implications are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.
Research Question
There is a growing body of research focused on athlete activism and social movements in the sport literature. One lineage of research examined consumer perceptions and reactions to these movements. Such discussions, however, generally concentrate on detecting changes in consumer behaviors rather than understanding the nuance in those changing behaviors. The present study advances the literature by considering how two potential factors – the size of protests and the geographic proximity consumers have to a protest – impact attendance at NFL games.
Research Methods
The present study utilizes social protests carried out by professional American football players in 2016–2017 to measure the number of workers who participated in the protests. Specifically, estimations of Tobit and fixed-effects regressions from 1003 games examine whether protests conducted by NFL players impact attendance in local markets.
Results and Findings
Findings from all estimated models suggest that as the number of players who participated in the protests increased, there was a decline in NFL attendance. Moreover, consumers were sensitive only to protests occurring within their own local market, indicating consumers tended to react to protests for teams located in the same city.
Implications
Scholars argue that for social movements to be successful in disrupting organizations, many participants are needed. In response to this point, the present research extends the research in sport-based social movements by developing further understanding of how they impact consumer behaviors, and thus affect the management of sport organizations.
Drawing from interviews with 31 collegiate athlete activists, the goal of this study was to identify barriers to athlete activism in the hegemonic arena of U.S. college sport. I utilize a multilevel analysis to map how activism is rendered counter-hegemonic, non-normative behavior in college sport through barriers manifesting at the macro-level (societal), meso-level (organizational), and micro-level (individual). Barriers at the macro-level include social norms prioritizing athlete identity and stigma attached to activism, while barriers at the meso-level include the strict regulation of athletes’ lives, isolation on campus, team cultural norms, and institutional power relations. Finally, emotional exhaustion and lack of rapport with peers manifested at the micro-level, further constituting barriers to activist efforts. The complex interplay of barriers at multiple levels, I argue, perpetuates a hegemonic order where contemporary collegiate athlete activists and the arena of sport become sites for the struggle for power – that is, cultural sites in which the battle between hegemonic forces and agents of resistance becomes manifested and visible.
Although Black Lives Matter (BLM) impacted the US 2020 election, it was more background in Japan’s 2021 polls but brought important issues of race and racism into the national conversation. This chapter argues that BLM in Japan follows a long pattern of ambivalence around race as the world’s first non-white modern power. BLM in Japan has been successful in highlighting the notions and attitudes that perpetuate antiblack racism but has fallen short in joining concerted action among newer and older excluded groups under an antiracist banner. This chapter will first discuss BLM Japan’s immediate impact, second Japan’s racial gymnastics, third the complexities of black admiration and antiblack racism, and finally what BLM tells us about race, racism, and coalition building possibilities. As Japan opens to immigration, the realities of old and new racisms will increasingly become center stage with antiracist collective action and policy innovation critical to Japan’s future development as a liberal democracy.
The advocacy of celebrity athletes plays an important role in motivating people to engage in racial issues. However, little empirical research has explored the types of issue involvement that are motivated by athlete racial advocacy. This study investigates the relationship between exposure to athlete racial advocacy and issue involvement in the Japanese context. Data were collected from 2,700 Japanese respondents using an internet-based survey in January 2021. The results show that exposure to athlete racial advocacy is positively associated with the following types of public issue involvement: ‘awareness,’ ‘concern,’ ‘knowledge,’ and ‘information-seeking.’ However, the exposure has no significant effect on ‘talk frequency.’ The results suggest that athlete advocacy can motivate limited types of public involvement in racial issues. Our findings help athlete advocates, sport actors, and non-profit marketers to develop strategies on ways to respond to advocacy and facilitate further social change.
This study utilizes social identity theory to explore fan responses to the NFL teams’ racial advocacy on Twitter at the start of the 2020 football season. A content analysis of 2,868 direct replies and their corresponding user profiles was conducted. Findings supported SIT’s propositions about in-group bias, with commenters being more supportive and less critical of the activist messaging from the official accounts of teams for whom they express fandom. In contrast to expectations, out-group fans were also more supportive, while non-expressive users were the most active and critical of activist messaging. A post-hoc analysis, subsequently, revealed support for the hierarchy of social identity postulate, with in-group fans with conservative political orientation being most likely to renounce their fandom for NFL teams. Collectively, this study speaks to the resistance toward racial advocacy in sport but also frames fan expression and identity as a means of understanding patterns within these conversations.
How do cultural norms, ideologies, and beliefs shape public opinion and media framing of race-based athletic activism? This paper uses media coverage of and commentary on the 1968 American ‘revolt of the Black athlete’ to explicate the deep cultural structures that help explain both support and opposition. The paper begins with a brief, schematic overview of the proposal for a Black Olympic boycott that was the centrepiece of 1968 organising and how it was reported by sports journalists and in the mainstream media. The second section identifies the reasons American reporters were, on the whole, so opposed to the proposed boycott: the inherent lack of support for the athletes’ racial change agenda and the far-more-familiar arguments that sports were not the proper venue for activism. The third section argues that a whole constellation of cultural norms and beliefs—about sport culture, colour-blind visions of racial justice, and liberal democratic ideals about politics and social change—coalesced to make race-based sport protest appear both unnecessary and inappropriate. The conclusion summarises the implications for understanding both public reception of and media responses to contemporary, race-based athletic activism as well as for tracking institutional changes and cultural shifts unfolding in the Black Lives Matter era.
This paper analyzes the effect of anthem protests on viewership for National Football League (NFL) games controlling for measures of NFL market-specific political beliefs and other demand determinants. To capture the effect of the protests on viewership, we create two classes of protests (unambiguous and ambiguous protests) and support the classification based on the meaning of the protest, actions by NFL owners, and statements by Donald Trump. Using data from all early and late-afternoon Sunday games from the 2014 through 2017 regular NFL seasons, we show that: (1) unambiguous protests reduce viewership in the week following the protests by about 15% while ambiguous protests do not generally produce statistically significant reductions in viewership; (2) the negative effect of unambiguous protests on viewership is particularly strong in metro locations that voted more heavily for Donald Trump in 2016; and (3) following Donald Trump's statements in week 3 of the 2017 season, both ambiguous and unambiguous protests increased and the increase in ambiguous protests was particularly large.
In this article I argue that athlete activist's personal and professional positionality influence their activism. Researchers document the powerful impact that athlete activists wield in effecting social change – especially during the civil rights movement. However, the extant literature does not consider the important points of sameness or difference that activists’ personal and professional positionality afford them. Athlete activists are not homogenous. Using content analysis, this article examines how Naomi Osaka's leverages her positionality to generate points of sameness and difference with multiple groups. The findings demonstrate that athletes’ personal racial identities greatly influence their decision to become an activist and the issues they speak to. Further, their professional positionality is embedded in a history of former activists, current activists, and the racial structure of their sport. I conclude that Osaka is greatly influenced by the points of sameness and difference afforded to her by her multiple personal and professional identities.
On August 26, 2020, the sporting world experienced a monumental return of athlete activism when National Basketball Association (NBA) players executed a boycott of the playoffs as a result of heightened frustration after video evidence of the unjust police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, surfaced on social media on August 23, 2020. NBA players (followed by WNBA players) decided to cease play and enter into discussions with league officials to garner a deal that intertwined the promotion of the Black Lives Matter movement with that of the (W)NBA playoffs; players demanded that the (W)NBA playoffs ground zero for Black Lives Matter promotion and social justice initiatives. As the “fifth wave” of athlete activists stormed the sporting world, their demand for dialogic practices is starkly different than the pioneers of the past, while also aiming to accomplish the general mission of the Heritage—racial equality through athlete activism. This article aims to analyze the new frontier of athlete activism through a Critical Race Theory lens by analyzing the ways in which the implementation of dialogic practices led to one of the most iconic waves of athlete activism in sport history.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the structural relationships among the variables of social cause involvement, attitudes toward the endorser, attitudes toward advertising, attitudes toward the brand and social cause behavioral intentions. Additionally, by using the persuasion knowledge model (PKM) as the guiding framework, the moderating effects of ad perception on the proposed relationship were investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
By using Amazon Mechanical Turk, a total of 291 usable surveys were retained for analysis. Following the participants' exposure to the Nike commercial, they completed a survey containing questions about advertising perception and their consequent responses to the advertisement. Structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model. Multigroup analysis was also performed to discover any moderating effects of consumers' advertising perception in endorsement effectiveness.
Findings
This study highlights the extensive impact of social cause involvement in the domain of celebrity endorsements, while attitudes toward the endorser are not a significant antecedent of celebrity endorsement effectiveness in the sport contexts. Additionally, this study demonstrates and confirms the presence of the moderating effects of advertisement perception on the proposed relationship. This supports the general premise of the PKM that consumers' attitudes and thoughts are influenced based on consumers' judgment of persuasion attempts.
Originality/value
The current study extends the line of research on the role of advertising perception in the domain of celebrity endorsement. In particular, this study found that the PKM is a theoretically sound model that can be used to predict sports fans' attitudinal and behavioral responses.
Within sport management scholarship, discussions of social change are becoming increasingly prevalent yet the underlying theoretical presumptions about social change are poorly (if at all) articulated. In this paper, we examine this shortcoming and challenge scholars to critically consider their social change agenda. We draw from established theories of social change to articulate how the term has been discussed more broadly in academic literature. In particular, we distinguish between individual, organizational, and community or social level changes as well as the nature of the change in question. Second, we employed a critical interpretive synthesis to consider how social change has been addressed within sport management scholarship. In doing so, we identify both where sport management literature has aligned with the broader social change literature as well as where it has not. Finally, we offer future considerations for sport management scholars interrogating social change, that involves a critical consideration of both level and nature of change.
Population-based survey experiments have become an invaluable tool for social scientists struggling to generalize laboratory-based results, and for survey researchers besieged by uncertainties about causality. Thanks to technological advances in recent years, experiments can now be administered to random samples of the population to which a theory applies. Yet until now, there was no self-contained resource for social scientists seeking a concise and accessible overview of this methodology, its strengths and weaknesses, and the unique challenges it poses for implementation and analysis. Drawing on examples from across the social sciences, this book covers everything you need to know to plan, implement, and analyze the results of population-based survey experiments. But it is more than just a “how to” manual. This book challenges conventional wisdom about internal and external validity, showing why strong causal claims need not come at the expense of external validity, and how it is now possible to execute experiments remotely using large-scale population samples. Designed for social scientists across the disciplines, the book provides the first complete introduction to this methodology and features a wealth of examples and practical advice.
This chapter addresses three common problems that emerge in the analysis stage. These include the misguided practice of doing randomization checks, whether and how to use survey weights, and the use and misuse of covariates. Investigators tend to approach the analysis and interpretation of population-based experiments from the perspective of usual practices in whatever their home discipline happens to be. However, as it turns out, some of these choices go hand in hand with common errors and faulty assumptions about the most appropriate way to analyze results from population-based experiments. Usual practices are not always appropriate, particularly with disciplines that favor observational methods. The chapter aims to provide guidance on the best practices and to explain when and why they make a difference.
The past decade has seen rapid growth in research that evaluates methods for reducing prejudice. This essay reviews 418 experiments reported in 309 manuscripts from 2007 to 2019 to assess which approaches work best and why. Our quantitative assessment uses meta-analysis to estimate average effects. Our qualitative assessment calls attention to landmark studies that are noteworthy for sustained interventions, imaginative measurement, and transparency. However, 76% of all studies evaluate light touch interventions, the long-term impact of which remains unclear. The modal intervention uses mentalizing as a salve for prejudice. Although these studies report optimistic conclusions, we identify troubling indications of publication bias that may exaggerate effects. Furthermore, landmark studies often find limited effects, which suggests the need for further theoretical innovation or synergies with other kinds of psychological or structural interventions. We conclude that much research effort is theoretically and empirically ill-suited to provide actionable, evidence-based recommendations for reducing prejudice.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 72 is January 4, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Professional athletes are increasingly engaged in social impact efforts via charitable endeavors. Despite seemingly good intentions in these efforts, the media’s representation of athlete philanthropy varies widely. This study examines how discourses of athlete charity are represented in U.S. media coverage. Over 100 newspaper articles were obtained for the period of 2005–2017. The authors conducted a qualitative analysis which consisted of attribute coding for basic article characteristics, identification of both framing and reasoning devices, and deductive coding to identify generic media frames. The authors present an adapted frame matrix highlighting the salient frames in media coverage of athlete philanthropy. Our results show that athlete charitable efforts are related to a personal or emotional connection or linked to an economic perspective around philanthropy. A third frame reflected a moral underpinning to athletes’ charitable work. The authors discuss managerial implications for teams and leagues that provide support for athletes’ charitable work, as well as for the athletes themselves.
The National Football League’s (NFL) television ratings decreased by approximately 8% during the 2016 season, then a further 10% the following season. These declines coincided with league-wide national anthem protests initiated by Colin Kaepernick at the beginning of the 2016 season. Existing research identifies many determinants of demand for sporting events, but athletes’ protests are seldom considered. We use detailed data on players’ protests and television ratings to construct a new, game-level panel for the four NFL seasons between 2014 and 2017. Our results show protests are statistically significantly associated with lower TV ratings, but the economic magnitude is relatively muted.
With great regularity, celebrities add their voices to the political debates that shape our future. One celebrity who has added his voice to the conversation about the status of African Americans in modern society is NBA superstar LeBron James. Our research examines how James’s standing on the issue of race is shaped by individuals’ relationships with him as well as current events involving James himself. Via a survey experiment in which some respondents are given information about hypothetical activism and real-world motivations underlying it, we find that favorability helps explain which individuals feel James is a major player on the issue of race. However, recent events like critiques from partisan opponents and being the victim of race-based crime did little to boost or undermine James’s standing.
Since the initiation of the first academic sport management program approximately 50 years ago, the efforts of countless scholars have enabled sport management to attain a strong position as an academic field. However, work within sport management oriented toward fostering social change has often taken a back seat to research that is viewed more favorably by commercial interests in sport. In the current paper, we present a model for bridging the theory-practice divide by conceptualizing social change as a continuum of actions that span across the disciplinary, institutional, and individual levels and involve strategies ranging from pragmatic to possible. Ultimately, we argue that the current moment is ripe for sport management scholars to center social change in their work, seeking critical engagement with a broad range of practitioners and stakeholders to help sport management better serve all sectors of the population.
Despite the recent re-emergence of the athlete activist into public consciousness, activism among athletes continues to be viewed as nonnormative behavior. Drawing from interviews with 31 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I collegiate athlete activists from across the United States, this study examined contemporary definitions of collegiate athlete activism for advancing social justice efforts. Five different conceptualizations of social justice activism emerged during the interviews: activism as social justice action, mentorship, authenticity, intervention, and public acts of resistance. Findings document changing notions of athlete activism and reveal nuanced forms of situational activism that do not rely on public expressions of resistance but rather are woven carefully into the fabric that makes up the athletes’ everyday lives. For these athletes, the image of an activist is not so much that of one walking in the streets but rather that of one using the social power they have as an athlete to promote strategic change in everyday situations. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for praxis are discussed.
The history of sports culture and fandom has long been as reactionary as it has been hospitable to progressive politics. As the most conspicuous recent example, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s U.S. anthem protest generated intense controversy with many critics claiming that sports and politics should, generally, not mix—a condemnation that ignores that context’s already pervasive militaristic nationalism. This article offers the first nationally representative examination of fans’ antipathy toward sports’ politicization through a critical textual analysis and inductive classification of their responses to the issue. Ostensibly “aracial” rebukes to that activism could nonetheless be characterized in lineage with historically stereotypical representations of and affronts to black athletes: as threatening to society, not intellectually equipped to engage, and illegitimate as leaders.
The convergence of sports and celebrity can have a powerful influence on everyday politics, especially for groups underrepresented in mainstream American society. This article examines the relationship between race, celebrity, and social movements, specifically Colin Kaepernick’s protest of police violence and whether his activism mobilizes black Americans to political action. Using the 2017 Black Voter Project (BVP) Pilot Study, we explore African American political engagement in the 2016 election, a time devoid of President Obama as a mobilizing figure. We find African Americans who strongly approve of Kaepernick’s protest engage in politics at elevated rates, even after accounting for alternative explanations. Moreover, approval for Kaepernick also moderates other forces rooted in group identity, such as identification with the Black Lives Matter movement. In the end, Kaepernick and the protest movement he leads offers a powerful mobilizing force for African Americans.
In August 2016, Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback on the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League, sat in protest during the national anthem. He made it clear that his stance was a political statement against racialized oppression and police brutality carried out against people of color in the USA, and in doing so he became a polarizing cultural figure. This article uses content analysis to examine newspaper coverage of the emergence and evolution of Kaepernick’s political activism over a critical two-year period, from August 2016 through August 2018. First, we identify the dominant frames that media adopted when covering his protests and their aftermath. Then we examine who got to speak in the articles: which sources tended to predominate and how did this inflect the principal frames? Finally, we explore whether Kaepernick’s activism deepened discussions over police brutality against African Americans or racial inequality in the USA. We conclude that the print media’s coverage was largely favorable to Kaepernick even as much of the coverage reduced the protest from being about racial injustice in the USA to being framed, reductively, as an “anthem protest.”
Recently, striking numbers of U.S. professional athletes have protested social injustices during the customary pregame national anthem (e.g., not standing in protest to police brutality). Fans have met athletes' protests with mixed reactions, thus calling into question whether fans' national attachments might help explain their reactions. In this empirical study of emerging adults (N = 514), we posit and find that disapproval of athlete activism is related significantly to overall national attachment. Decomposing national attachment into its respective subdimensions, we also find that fans' disapproval relates most strongly to uncritical patriotism followed by national identity, symbolic patriotism, and constructive patriotism. Leveraging partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and importance-performance analyses, we offer a rare multifaceted look into how national attachments can shape fans' reactions to athletes' social protest behaviors.
The present study aimed to explore the interactions and influences that occurred on Twitter after Joey Julius's (NCAA athlete, Penn State Football) and Mike Marjama's (MLB player, Seattle Mariners) eating-disorder (ED) diagnoses were revealed. Corresponding with the publicizing of each athlete's ED, all publicly tagged Twitter media using @joey_julius, Joey Julius, @MMarjama, and Mike Marjama were collected using Netlytic software and analyzed. Text analysis revealed that the conversation was supportive and focused on feelings and size. Social network analysis, based on 5 network properties, showed that Joey Julius invoked a larger conversation but that both athletes' conversations were single sided. Athlete advocacy on social media should be further explored, as it may contribute to changing societal opinion regarding social issues such as EDs.