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Biased Evaluations of In-Group and Out-Group Spectator Behavior at Sporting Events: The Importance of Team Identification and Threats to Social Identity
Abstract
Previous researchers have demonstrated that sport fans often exhibit in-group bias by reporting more positive evaluations of fellow in-group fans than of rival out-group fans. The authors designed the present investigation to extend previous research by replicating past efforts in a field setting and to advance our understanding of the impact of social identity threat. The present authors hypothesized that, in addition to the base-level in-group bias effect, the bias effect would be most pronounced in situations involving a threat to one's social identity. The authors believed that fans of a losing team and fans of a home team would experience threats to their identity and, consequently, exhibit particularly high levels of in-group favoritism. Further, because past researchers had shown that one's level of group identification plays a vital role in social perception, the present authors predicted an interaction in which the greatest amount of bias would be exhibited by highly identified fans rooting for a home team that had lost. Data gathered from spectators (N = 148) at 2 North American college basketball games confirmed the authors' expectations, with the exception that the supporters of the winning team reported higher levels of bias. The authors discussed the factors underlying the unexpected game outcome effect and the use of in-group bias as a coping strategy.
... Given the evidence suggesting ingroup favoritism, existing research has delved into simply how these biases operate within different types of fans. As a case in point, using a field setting of a college basketball game, Wann and Grieve (2005) have shown that when fans perceive a threat to their identity, they tend to exhibit higher levels of ingroup favoritism. However, it is worth noting that this effect occurred equally for both fans of the winning as well as the losing team. ...
... Through our research into the group dynamics of sports fans within this dissertation, we hope to demonstrate and extend the underlying psychological mechanisms that drive both supportive and derogatory tactics within fans. Although present research in sport management as well as applications of social psychology into sports have shown fans' susceptibility toward ingroup favoritism of athletes (Murrell & Dietz, 1993;Wann & Cottingham, 2015;Wann & Grieve, 2005), we intend to challenge these notions and illustrate the effects of ingroup vilification of an athlete that violates expectations. In studying SGD and the BSE, we also plan to employ behavioral manifestations of the phenomena by using both product choices and social media scenarios to describe their connection to sports consumption behavior. ...
... That is, more highly identified fans exhibited a tendency to provide higher ratings of competence. It also appears that team identification served to reduce evaluations of the outgroup athlete, supporting literature on biased evaluations of sport spectators by Wann and Grieve (2005). With respect to the exploratory interactions, team identification heightened the disparities in athlete evaluations, particularly for performance-related behaviors of ingroup players. ...
Within sports, membership in a fan base often constitutes an attachment to a team and its various personnel. As part of a presumed ingroup, sports fans will go about evaluating their favorite teams and players based on several factors, such as team or athlete performance and off‑the‑field behaviors by such athletes. Although a vast set of literature within sport management has reported that fans exhibit partiality towards their favorite teams, research in social psychology and group dynamics has presented evidence to dispute this occurrence. This body of work has contended that people in a group will operate using subjective group dynamics (SGD), wherein norms and values are actively considered in group appraisal. Complementary research has offered the manifestation of a black sheep effect (BSE), or ingroup extremity, particularly when members deviate from norms or standards of the group. In a similar vein, this dissertation challenges the prevalent notion of fans’ enduring support for their favorite teams and examines numerous correlates of such behavior. Through five main studies, this dissertation investigates the impact of athlete behavior, group membership, player status, rivalry, and regret on evaluative judgments, identity threat, purchase decisions, product choices, and social media behaviors. Study 1 gauged the role of ingroup extremity when a team’s expectations, or norms of performance by an athlete, are violated, providing evidence to support ingroup derogation among fans. Expanding upon these results, Study 2 offered an assessment of the BSE in determining how fans go about supporting and derogating an ingroup or outgroup athlete based on performance, while furthering the application of these concepts to purchase decisions and social media intentions. Our second experiment offers partial support of the BSE, wherein fans exhibit a proclivity to derogate deviant ingroup and outgroup athletes to the same extent. Using a multi‑method approach integrating both quantitative and qualitative methods, our third experiment tested how rivalry and membership (i.e., player) saliency operate to amplify specific aspects of fan behavior, social media intentions, and product choices. Study 3 reveals ingroup and performance biases among fans as well as the function of team identification as a guide for team-licensed merchandise selections. Study 4 examined how evaluations of deviant performance- and moral‑related behavior by athletes can be affected by various moral reasoning strategies utilized by fans. Our fourth experiment demonstrates similar biases as established in Study 3 and also illustrates the amplified use of moral rationalization over other moral reasoning strategies. Using the findings from our first four studies as a foundation, we introduce a novel concept to the field (i.e., black sheep regret [BSR]) and complete this dissertation with a field study (Study 5A) and an experimental investigation (Study 5B). Although Study 5A did not support BSR in a naturalistic context (i.e., on social media), Study 5B provides data to verify its occurrence in fans. Ultimately, Study 5B produces rationale for the inconclusive results within social media settings, explained by a potential effect of black sheep perpetuance (BSP). Taken together, this dissertation discusses its theoretical contributions and offers pragmatic implications and future directions for sport managers and practitioners within the sport industry. Ultimately, the current composition highlights the importance of multidisciplinary approaches in exploring various components of specific group behavior in fans, as well as in the larger milieu of human behavior itself.
... Groups that form parts of social identities of many individuals are local or national sport teams (Wann & Grieve, 2005;Brewer & Pierce, 2005). National group memberships become especially salient during global sports tournaments such as the Football World Cup (e.g., Chalip, 2006;Tomlinson & Young, 2006). ...
... Further, disliking is not only a predictor of schadenfreude in hypothetical scenarios but also in real-life situations (Gonzales-Gadea et al., 2018). Disliking/liking should explain a major part of variance in schadenfreude following a team's failure because ingroups and outgroups greatly differ in their likeability due to intergroup biases and ingroup favoritism (e.g., Wann & Grieve, 2005). Another reason is that liking/disliking forms part of the primary dimension of group perception, that is warmth (Koch et al., 2016;Imhoff & Koch, 2017;Koch et al., 2020). ...
... Furthermore, it has been shown that dominant individuals are generally liked less than prestigious individuals (Cheng et al., 2013). As outgroups are typically evaluated more negatively than ingroups (Wann & Grieve, 2005), they should be perceived as more dominant. Thus far, social rank attainment has been primary treated as an intragroup phenomenon. ...
Objectives
The failures of sport teams evoke strong emotions in spectators ranging from empathetic to unempathetic. The present work investigates how naturally varying group membership of participants (their nationality), dislike, social rank attainment (via dominance or prestige), and deservingness predict schadenfreude (= pleasure in response to another's misfortune) and sympathy in a highly relevant real-life sport event.
Design
I employed a quasi-experimental design and used the failure of the German national football team in the World Cup 2018 at group stage (Study 1) and the English team in the semi-finals (Study 2) to investigate which variables (disliking, deservingness, dominance, and prestige) predict schadenfreude and mediate the effect of group membership (same versus different nationality as the failing team) on schadenfreude.
Results
Between-group comparisons revealed that outgroup members expressed more schadenfreude and less sympathy than ingroup members. Furthermore, disliking, deservingness, and dominance, but not prestige positively predicted schadenfreude. The mediator disliking explained most of the differences in schadenfreude between ingroup and outgroup members in Study 1 (in which a relatively high-ranked team failed already at group-stage) as well as in Study 2 (in which a relatively low-ranked team failed only in the semi-finals, representing a rather mild failure).
Conclusions
The studies document divergent affective reactions of individuals merely differing in their national group membership. Dominance perceptions seem to vary with observers' group membership. I discuss the relative impact of each variable, the function of intergroup schadenfreude and practical implications.
... Remember Daniel Wann? He has found that sport fans will describe behavior of favorite and rival team fans differently (Wann & Dolan, 1994;Wann & Grieve, 2005) and that rivalry can impact favorite team and player performance evaluation (Wann & Thomas, 1994). He and colleagues also conducted a study where Kentucky Wildcats Men's Basketball fans watched a video of a player they believed was a highly rated basketball recruit (Wann et al., 2006). ...
... However, when an out-group member does something that negatively reflects on their group, people may expect such behaviors from "those fans". We have discussed how sport fans react to rival fan behavior (Wann & Dolan, 1994;Wann & Grieve, 2005). The affiliation with a group (e.g., supporters of a favorite team) can inherently cause individuals to find ways to derogate a rival team in whatever way necessary. ...
... As we know, it is not always the case that fans of one team cause all arguments, fights, or trouble. However the interesting finding here is that based solely on group membership, sport fans will evaluate rival fan behavior negatively (Wann & Dolan, 1994;Wann & Grieve, 2005). ...
... Given the evidence suggesting ingroup favouritism, existing research has examined how these biases might operate within different types of fans. For example, Wann and Grieve (2005) showed that when fans perceived a threat to their social identity, they tended to exhibit higher levels of ingroup favouritism. However, it is worth noting that this effect occurred equally for both fans of the winning, as well as the losing team. ...
... Accordingly, fans with higher team identification tended to support the ingroup member who satisfied values of high performance and competence. Although prior work has reported that fans operate using ingroup biases (Wann & Branscombe, 1995;Wann & Dolan, 1994;Wann & Grieve, 2005;Wann et al., 2006), we found potential evidence to counter this phenomenon following non-normative behaviour, thereby substantiating a possible ingroup derogation effect (a primary component of subjective group dynamics and the black sheep effect). Fans evaluated the target athlete more favourably following scenarios involving better performance and perceived less threat to their identities. ...
Extant research has characterised various group behaviours through the lens of the theory of subjective group dynamics, which describes how ingroup members’ deviation from the group’s prescriptive norms can impact other members’ perceptions of the group and its members. Deviations from ingroup norms may result in the black sheep effect, which refers to the tendency for individuals to actively judge deviant ingroup members more harshly than similar behaving outgroup members. In this study, we examined the black sheep effect in the context of sports fans’ judgments about athletic performance. When athletes violate sports fans’ prescriptive team norms by performing poorly, these fans may derogate such athletes. Subjective group dynamics in sports contexts has been understudied, and findings for the black sheep effect have been mixed. Thus, we empirically tested for these phenomena in two experiments using fictitious cases of ingroup and outgroup athlete performances. In line with predictions from subjective group dynamics, we found a lack of ingroup bias on perceived competence and increased identity threat following poor performance, with team identification moderating such outcomes in Study 1. Although the presence of the black sheep effect was not confirmed in Study 2, our second experiment offers evidence to suggest that fans may equate poor-performing, ingroup athletes with similar outgroup players. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed.
... I. Jones (2000) pinpointed important features of sport fandom such as in-group favouritism and unrealistic optimism, thereby highlighting the unique personal and social identities integral to sport fandom. Wann and Grieve (2005) further reported that game outcomes could be perceived as forms of social identity threats by the fans, which would arouse their self-esteem reinforcement and in turn stronger in-group biases. ...
... A certain form of halo effect may have come into play here, revealing the tilted presentation of the selection, emphasis and exclusion in Chinese fans' identification with Wu, his club and even LaLiga. In this sense, the fandom characteristic of in-group favouritism (Jones, 2010;Wann & Grieve, 2005) has been narrowed down to 'in-person favouritism' in the case of Wu. Nevertheless, the optimism held by the fans was not unrealistic, as they fully recognised and acknowledged the significance of characteristics such as sacrifice, endurance, tolerance, cultural accommodation and a spirit of competition from Wu's sheer presence in LaLiga. ...
This study examined how Chinese football fans identify themselves with Lei Wu, currently the only Chinese footballer playing in a European mainstream league. Chinese fans’ social media posts about Wu were compared after scoring vs. not scoring, and after playing vs. playing, in several matches in a row. Qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative (chi-square tests) analyses were conducted. Two major dimensions of identification with Wu emerged, namely athletic (identification with Wu’s athleticism) and socio-cultural (identification with Wu as a Chinese icon). There was stronger socio-cultural identification with Wu when he scored goals, but this aspect of identification did not vary based on whether or not he made league appearances. The study makes a unique contribution by studying fandom as a mechanism for expressing cultural pride. The results are discussed in terms of the cultural and policy contexts of contemporary China.
... People differ in their relative identification and fandom , with varying outcomes from their affiliation. For example, people feel less lonely and more attached if they associate with a favored team in their setting (Branscombe & Wann, 1991;Wann, Brame, Clarkson, Brooks, & Waddill, 2008), receive positive benefits from a favorite team victory (Cialdini et al., 1976;Bernache-Assollant, Chantal, Bouchet, & Kada, 2018), and also may engage in biased evaluations of brand importance and performance to protect their in-group (Wann & Dolan, 1994;Wann & Grieve, 2005), and thereby their self-image (Madrigal, 1995). ...
The current study investigated how sport fans and those of popular athletic footwear brands Nike and Adidas perceived and behaved toward their favorite and relevant rival brands. First, sport fans were compared with fans of athletic footwear brands to determine if differences were present in their favorite and rival brand perceptions. Sport fans reported higher identity toward their favorite brand, and more derogation toward a rival team than fans of the Nike and Adidas athletic footwear brands. Analysis also revealed that identifying as a fan of both sport and athletic footwear was associated with more positive attitudes directed at the favored footwear brand, while fans of Nike and Adidas did not differ in how they viewed their favorite and rival athletic footwear brands. Discussion and implications for researchers and marketing professionals is included, along with avenues for future research.
... Wann (2006, p. 332) characterizes such interests as fan identification, articulated as "the extent to which a fan feels a psychological connection to a team and the team's performances. " These permeate virtually all forms of how sports television is received, partly because the sport-based in-group affiliation is one of the most intractable of all connections; the team one prefers as a child is quite often the one preferred later in life (Wann & Grieve, 2005). ...
In an age of ubiquitous new/mobile media options, television remains the preeminent form of media consumption for sports fans worldwide. This chapter explores the reasons for television’s entrenched domination in a broadening media landscape, along with the constrictions inherent within the legacy platform. It also articulates the political-economic drivers, the content shaping, and the complexities of audience engagement within televised sport. The argument advanced is that while televised sport has evolved dramatically over time, the structures underpinning the rendering of it have stayed remarkably constant. Ultimately, the symbiotic relationship between sport stakeholders (athletes, teams, sponsors, organizations, etc.) and the television networks facilitating sports media products reifies the reason why sports television remains the de facto heuristic for facilitating sport fandom and consumption.
... From the supporters' perspective, the VAR provides fertile ground for mistrust and anger. Indeed, given the reviewed in-game situations' being ambiguous, supporters might be quick to fall into engaging in ingroup bias (Wann & Grieve, 2005) and to perceive the right decision to be the one in favor of their team. Furthermore, supporters might be both frustrated by the VAR's call not being in favor of their team, but also by an absence of a VAR call, when they believe it should have been necessary. ...
There is a growing interest in social psychology in the study of beliefs in conspiracy theories. However, intergroup processes and consequences of these beliefs remain under-investigated. In this thesis, we argue that conspiracy beliefs can be conceptualized as social identity management strategies. We propose that this identity process is particularly at work in the case of collective narcissism (i.e., a defensive form of social identification), by attributing factors that threaten the ingroup image to the hidden and malicious actions of outgroups. Furthermore, we propose that an inflated perception of one’s ingroup victimhood motivates conspiracy beliefs. We tested the hypothesis of this process and its societal consequences through several studies. Lastly, we sought to identify some of the societal consequences of these conspiracy beliefs motivated at intergroup level. In the first chapter, we showed that conspiracy beliefs targeting outgroups are important predictors of the rejection of COVID-19 vaccination. In a second chapter, we proposed that conspiracy beliefs motivated at intergroup level have environmental consequences, mediating the relationship between national narcissism and the rejection of climate science. In a third chapter, we extended the study of the negative consequences of these defensive beliefs to prejudice against immigrants, testing the causal paths between national narcissism, perceived intergroup threat, conspiracy beliefs, and prejudice. In a fourth chapter, we tested in the context of public-health crises the idea that an inflated perception of one’s ingroup victimhood would legitimise conspiracy beliefs. In a fifth chapter, we aimed to replicate our main hypotheses in an ecological context (sport fandom at international football tournaments). We present a content analysis of tweets from the 2018 FIFA World Cup, as well as material from a longitudinal study conducted during Euro 2020. This work supports the relevance of an intergroup approach to conspiracy beliefs.
... Il semblerait même que, quoiqu'il arrive, une mauvaise performance de l'équipe ou des actions illicites de joueurs ou des dirigeants ; cela n'affecte pas la position d'allégeance que l'individu manifeste vis-à-vis de l'objet (Kwon, Trail et Lee, 2008 ;Spinda, 2011). Ce phénomène est dû à un biais cognitif visant à blâmer d'autres facteurs que l'objet lui-même (Wann, 2006 ;Wann et Dolan, 1994 ;Wann et Grieve, 2005 ;Wann et Schrader, 2000) ou à soutenir celui-ci lorsque le lien identitaire est menacé (Wann, 2006). Un Le point d'attachement qui a mobilisé le plus de travaux de recherche est l'attachement à l'équipe 55 , notamment sous l'angle du taux d'identification à une équipe. ...
Pourquoi les nouvelles enceintes sportives n’atteignent-elles pas les objectifs escomptés, notamment en termes de taux de remplissage ? Pour répondre à cette question, étudier le processus d’attachement au club et d’attachement au stade nous semble particulièrement porteur, notamment dans les chaînages conceptuels proximité → valeur perçue → attachement et attachement à l’ancien stade → proximité → valeur perçue → attachement au nouveau stade.Vingt-trois hypothèses sont formulées et testées auprès de 1 446 spectateurs de stade Yves-du-Manoir de Colombes, 668 spectateurs de la Paris La Défense Arena et 328 spectateurs des deux enceintes. Les résultats obtenus confirment la validité des deux chaînages conceptuels testés et offrent des pistes de réflexion managériale pour les professionnels de l’industrie du sport professionnel qui souhaiteraient améliorer le taux de remplissage de leur enceinte.
... In contrast, the literature on Sport Management and Psychology has rather tended to focus on the idea of fan perceptions and aspirations as shaped by the sporting success of the respectively followed teams (Cialdini et al., 1976;Lock et al., 2012, pp. 284-285;Wann & Grieve, 2005). It is against this diverse background of literatures and conceptual approaches that we suggest exploring the identity-related aspects of any Europeanisation in the minds of football fans in a more comprehensive manner. ...
Across Europe, national professional football leagues have seen increasing numbers of players from other EU states, while the Champions League and the Europa League have become a focal point for many teams. This article seeks to investigate how far this Europeanisation on the organisational level of football is reflected in identities and discourses of fans. We developed a framework to analyse the Europeanisation of identities among football fans. In the empirical part, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of fan discussions on publicly available message boards among fans of four first league teams in England and Austria. Our empirical findings indicate that fans’ identities are to some extent Europeanised, albeit in very different ways and to varying degrees. The participation in European club competitions and the Europeanisation of player markets seem to shape fan perceptions in that respect.
... Hastorf and Cantril (1954) famously showed students from Dartmouth and Princeton a video of a football game between the two school teams to find that participants' perception of violations were due to the other team. Wann and Grieve (2005) asked fans after university basketball games to rate the behaviour of spectators of each team to find that fans rated ingroup (vs. rival team) spectators as acting more appropriately during the game. ...
We examined whether intragroup helping mediates the relationship between identification with one’s fandom and self-esteem and psychological well-being in three different samples of fans: bronies (fans of the television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), anime fans (fans of Japanese animation and graphic novels), and furries (fans of anthropomorphic art and stories). Fans completed measures of ingroup identification, intragroup helping, and self-esteem (Studies 1 & 2) or psychological well-being (Study 3). Across all studies, the results tended to support intragroup helping as a mediator of the relationship between identification and self-esteem (Studies 1 & 2) and psychological well-being (Study 3). The results highlight a possible mechanism contributing to the benefits of belonging to fan groups and illustrate the possible benefits of helping others within one’s fan group.
... In turn, rivalry influences outcomes Such as decision making 49 , descriptions of others 50,51,52 , public identification 53 , likelihood of engaging in unethical behavior 54,55 , and willingness to consider anonymous aggression toward others 56,57,58,59,60 . Related to consumer outcomes, rivalry influences price premiums 61 , attending or watching a game on television 62 , and attitudes toward sponsoring organizations 62,64,65 . ...
The current study investigated the differences in perceptions of rival brands and out-group members between fans of sport team and electronic gaming or eSports. Using the theoretical underpinnings of Social Identity Theory, rivalry, in-group bias, and the common in-group model, the authors compare the influence of setting and belonging to multiple in-groups on fandom and rival perceptions in sport and gaming. A series of MANCOVAs found that in most instances, fans of sport teams tended to report stronger negative perceptions of their rival teams and supporters than did gaming fans and participants. Additionally, being a fan of both a sport team and gaming influenced more positive perceptions of rival brands and out-group members than did being a fan of only sport or gaming. Finally, gamers that use the online platform reported more negative perceptions of the console platform than vice versa, and ethnicity presents interesting influence of gaming participants. Implications for marketing professionals along with avenues for future investigation are discussed.
... One outcome from group affiliation is that people begin to adopt the identity of the collective (Ashmore, Deaux, & McLaughlin-Volpe, 2004), and when that occurs, they draw comparisons between ingroups and out-groups in an attempt to elevate stature (Tajfel & Turner, 1979;Turner, 1978). These comparisons can be amplified when a rival out-group is involved, such as more negative views of outgroup member behavior (Wann & Dolan, 1995;Wann & Grieve, 2005), out-group participant performance (Wann et al., 2006), negativity stories about out-groups (Havard & Eddy, 2019), and even willingness to consider anonymous aggression toward out-group members (Havard, Wann, & Ryan, 2013Havard, Wann, Ryan, & O'Neal, 2017;Wann, Haynes, McLean, & Pullen, 2003;Wann, Peterson, Cothran & Dykes, 1999;Wann & Waddill, 2013). ...
The current study investigated differences in perceptions and likely behaviors toward rival out-groups among sport and direct-to-consumer streaming services. Results indicated that fans of sport reported higher identification with their favorite team and more negativity toward their rival team than did fans of streaming services. Further, being a fan of both sport and streaming services was correlated with more negativity toward the sport rival and more positivity toward rival streaming services. Finally, fans of streaming did not differ in their perceptions and likely behaviors toward rival groups among streaming platforms. Discussion focuses on implications and avenues for future research. Findings in Sport, Hospitality, Entertainment, and Event Management # The fast-growing popularity of direct-to-consumer streaming services continues to grow in our consumer culture (Coates, 2020). The cord-cutting trend-cancelling terrestrial cable television-for more al a carte entertainment offering that started in the mid-2000's has been escalated in the past two to three years, with many companies launching services to compete for consumer subscriptions (Adalian, 2020). The competition among streaming services for new and continuing consumers, along with existing relationships among companies (Havard, 2020), can push many brands to treat each other as rivals (Havard, 2021). As the companies themselves compete as rivals, it is important to evaluate how fans and users of streaming services view relevant brands. The current study investigated this by first asking fans to identify favorite and rival streaming brands and measuring participants perceptions and likely behaviors toward their identified favorite and rival brands, particularly out-group derogation. In order to determine intensity of feelings of rivalry and out-group derogation, responses from streaming fans were compared to responses from sport fans. Therefore, the current study further added information to the literature on rivalry and group member behavior by comparing perceptions and likely behaviors toward a rival in a sport and non-sport consumer setting.
... Previous research found that sports fans often show ingroup favouritism and outgroup derogation, and that these biases often occur when subjects have a higher identification with the team in question [1]. In addition, researchers investigated if the bias effect would be most pronounced in situations involving threat to one's social identity [13], and verified that the individual's psychological connection to his/her team played a vital role in the level of bias, since the greatest level of bias was reported by highly identified fans. ...
Previous literature has shown that social identity influences consumer decision-making towards branded products. However, its influence on ones' own sensory perception of an ingroup (or outgroup) associated brand's product (i.e. sponsor) is seldom documented and little understood. Here, we investigate the impact of social identity (i.e. team identification) with a football team on the sensorial experience and willingness to buy a beverage, said to be sponsoring the ingroup or the outgroup team. Ninety subjects participated in one of three sensorial experience conditions (matched identity: ingroup beverage; mismatched identity: outgroup beverage; control: no group preference). Each participant tasted the new sponsoring beverage and answered a questionnaire about their subjective sensorial experience of the beverage. EEG and BVP were synchronously collected throughout. Analyses revealed that team identification does not influence subjective responses and only slightly modulates physiological signals. All participants reported high valence and arousal values while physiological signals consistently translated negative affects across groups, which showed that participants reported to be happy/excited about trying the beverage while their physiological signals showed that they were feeling sad/depressed/angry. Crucially, despite a similar sensorial experience, and similar socially desirable report of the subjective experience, only participants in the matched identity group demonstrate higher willingness to buy, showing that the level of team identification, but not taste or beverage quality, influences willingness to buy the said sponsor's product.
... For example in a study by Wann et al. (2006), it was found that individuals exhibited an ingroup favouritism effect by reporting more positive evaluations of a player's performance when being described as a potential member of their team. Research consistently shows that sport fans demonstrate this self-serving bias, especially by attributing team success to internal factors (e.g., player skill), whereas poor performance is attributed to external factors (e.g., bad luck) (Wann & Dolan, 1994;Wann & Grieve, 2005). Another bias that is frequently found among sports fans refers to fans' expectancies of their team's performances. ...
Identification with a sports team depends on the team’s success and can also be associated with the mental availability of a team. The present study investigates whether experimentally induced salience of a team may influence team identification and expectancies regarding team performance. Two experimental field studies were done in Germany. Study 1 was done during the group stage of the FIFA world cup in June 2018 with n = 699 participants (age: M = 39.30, SD = 17.76; 52.2% female). Study 2 was done in January 2019, outside of any international soccer tournament, and included n = 292 participants (42.4% female) with mean age M = 42.65 years (SD = 16.51). In both studies, participants were approached in a Germany, Brasil, France or a grey T-shirt (manipulation of German national team salience). All participants provided self-report data (among others) on team identification and the perceived probability of Germany winning the next FIFA world cup. Both, in study 1 and study 2 neither team identification nor estimated success differed among the experimental groups. In study 1 team identification (F(3,674) = 3.22, p = .022, ηp2 = .014) and estimated success (F(3,645) = 15.82, p < .001, ηp2 = .069) differed between measurement points, being highest after Germany had won. This study shows that instead of salience the amount of identification with a team and expectancies about its performance depend on the team’s success. It can be assumed that via associating oneself with a successful team, individuals can improve their self-esteem.
... A vast and conceptually rich literature on identity dynamics among sport fans and supporters already exists. One of the main points of departure in these works is the idea of fan perceptions, behaviours and aspirations as shaped by the sporting success of the teams they follow (Cialdini et al. 1976;Lock et al. 2012:284-85;Lock et al. 2014), or to what extent an established team identification mitigates distancing effects in case of sporting failure (Wann and Branscombe 1990;Wann and Grieve 2005). More recently, Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3806348 ...
... It remains unclear whether such cultural differences in optimistic bias would be influenced by age. There is evidence suggesting that optimistic bias is highly associated with ingroup favoritism (Chen et al., 2002;Wann & Grieve, 2005), with both emphasizing more positive evaluation of self/close others relative to less close others. Like cultural differences in optimistic bias, studies showed that ingroup favoritism was emphasized more in collectivistic cultures such as China than in individualistic cultures such as the United States (Huang & Rau, 2019;van Hoorn, 2015). ...
Objectives
Optimistic bias refers to the phenomenon that individuals believe bad things are less likely to happen to themselves than to others. However, whether optimistic bias could vary across age and culture is unknown. The present study aims to investigate: 1) whether individuals exhibit optimistic bias in the context of COVID-19 pandemic; 2) and whether age and culture would moderate such bias.
Method
1051 participants recruited from China, Israel and the US took the online survey. Risk perceptions consists of three questions: estimating the infected probability of different social distance groups (i.e., self, close others, and non-close others), the days that it would take for the number of new infections to decrease to zero and the trend of infections in regions of different geographical distances (i.e., local place, other places inside participants’ country and other countries). Participants in China and the US also reported their personal communal values measured by Schwartz’s Value Survey.
Results
Results from HLM generally confirmed that 1) all participants exhibited optimistic bias to some extent, and 2) with age, Chinese participants had a higher level of optimistic bias than Israeli and US participants. Compared to their younger counterparts, older Chinese are more likely to believe that local communities are at lower risk of COVID-19 than other countries.
Discussion
These findings support the hypothesis that age differences in risk perceptions might be influenced by cultural context. Further analysis indicated that such cultural and age variations in optimistic bias were likely to be driven by age-related increase in internalized cultural values.
... 497). As Wann and Grieve (2005) note, by viewing the in-group positively or perceiving out-groups negatively, individuals are able to boost or restore their collective (i.e., group or social) self-esteem. In the tribal sport fandom continuum, the need to feel a sense of belonging with others based on, in many cases, a shared liking of the local sport team is an important process which lays the foundation for these fans to co-create and co-consume sporting events. ...
Sport fans rarely attend sporting events alone. While traditional consumer and sport fan behavior research often examines fans based on demographic characteristics, recent advances in understanding how sport fans co-create and co-consume sporting events provides substantial evidence that sports fans should be examined as tribal groups. Tribal sport fan groups can be identified based on seven dimensions, including membership; geographic sense of community; social recognition; shared rivalry; and shared knowledge of symbols, rituals and traditions, and people. In this research, these seven dimensions are used to classify sport fans (n=1505) through hierarchical and k-cluster analyses. The results of the cluster analyses using the seven dimensions suggest six unique clusters, labelled as (1) casual fans, (2) moderate remote fans, (3) moderate local fans, (4) local developing tribal fans, (5) remote tribal fans, and (6) tribal fans. A discussion of these six fan groups and the implications regarding associations with demographics and other important variables are provided.
... This exacerbated intergroup tension because the competitive setting of sport events seems to play an important role in the creation of people's identities. This coincides with Tajfel's (1979) perspective about how the existence of other groups highlights the perception of similarity with the group, which reinforces the image and self-esteem of the group itself (Wann and Grieve, 2005). ...
Following a neo-Durkheimian perspective, major sporting events such as the World Cup or the America's Cup differ from other collective rituals because they promote interest throughout the nation due to their massiveness and international character. In order to increase the scientific knowledge related to these type of rituals, the aim of this study was to observe the effects that the Chilean victory in the 2016 Copa América Centenario had on social variables such as trust, self-transcendent aspirations, and evaluated subjective well-being (SWB) of both fans and non-fans. In addition, two longitudinal structural equation models (SEMs) were performed to estimate the effect of identity with the national team before the final match on evaluated SWB, trust, and self-transcendent aspirations post-final. A total of 648 Chilean participants (mean age = 38.58; SD = 10.96) answered the questionnaire before the final match. Out of these, 409 completed our measures after the final. The results show that fans presented higher scores in many of the studied variables before and after the final compared to non-fans. Identification with the national team (before the final) prospectively and significantly predicted pride in the national team and pride in the country (after the final). In addition, these two forms of collective pride mediated the relationship between identification with the national team (before the final) and evaluated SWB (after the final). The results are discussed emphasizing the importance of these kinds of specific massive rituals and their effects. Keywords: major sport events, collective rituals, identification with the national team, collective pride, evaluated subjective well-being, social trust, self-transcendent aspirations.
... The Olympics and Intergroup Biases 4 ingroup favoritism even among individuals with low levels of ingroup identification (Cheung et al., 2011;Wann & Grieve, 2005). In addition, the Olympics were shown to be associated with nationalism (Billings, Brown, & Brown, 2013). ...
The Olympics aim to promote peace and unity across the globe through sports. Ironically, however, we predicted that the Olympics could be associated with intergroup biases because the Olympics not only activate social/national identity as a citizen, but also highlight intense competition between countries. In support of this prediction, attitudes toward outgroups were negatively associated with international sporting events like the Olympics (Studies 1–2). Moreover, both behavioral intentions (Study 3) and actual behaviors (Study 4) toward outgroups were more negative during the Olympics than before the Olympics. During the Olympics, Koreans were less willing to donate money to help migrant workers and showed a tendency to discriminate against Southeast Asian job applicants. Interestingly, the association was observed for negatively stereotyped outgroups (e.g., Southeast Asians and Chinese), but not for favorably stereotyped outgroups (e.g., Canadians).
... The in-group bias is defined as "the systematic tendency to evaluate one's own membership group (the in-group) or its members more favorably than a nonmembership group (the out-group) or its members" (Hewstone et al., 2002, p. 576). Based on the in-group bias effect, researchers have found that sport consumers with high team identification show a strong tendency to protect players from potential threats, even when they have committed transgressions (Wann & Grieve, 2005). In this regard, the in-group bias is expected to provide a sound theoretical foundation in the context of scandal because highly identifed sport consumers are more likely to respond to the same transgression in a more favorable (or a less negative) manner than less identfied sport consumers (Lee, Kwak, & Braunstein-Minkove, 2016). ...
Sport is largely a social construction that sustains a plethora of cultural forms, ideologies, and communicative practices. Indeed, some commentators claim one cannot understand a culture adequately if they do not appreciate its distinctive sports and attending histories. Sport reflects societies' attitudes, with the latter shaping the former and often being associated with nationalistic ideals and militarism. Intergroup dynamics are readily observed in fans' dress styles, fanzines, expressed values, and the nature of their rivalries, to name but a few. Different sports, and the way they are mediatized and commodified, are changing every year, and this presents an exciting challenge for intergroup theory development.
Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is the apprehension stemming from missing out on social interactions, and it is a salient motive for sport consumption. Sport fans are active and engaged on social media, and they give Continuous Partial Attention (CPA) to other screens, displaying online behaviors such as accessing team social media channels while watching live sports on screens. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were performed to examine the role of FoMO, with mediations of social media involvement and CPA, on fans' online engagement with sports teams' social media. Participants ( N = 328) demonstrated that fans with FoMO have a desire to continuously connect with other fans while watching live sports on screens, which leads to engaging in social media activities related to the sport team. This study provides theoretical and practical implications related to sport fans' social media information-seeking behaviors and for social media managers of sports teams, including the operations of live broadcasts during sports games.
The current study investigated how fans and supporters of sport teams and political parties in the United States viewed relevant out-groups and out-group members. Specifically, perceptions of rival sport teams and political parties were compared to determine how fans and supporters differed in their views and likely behaviors toward out-groups. Findings showed that sport fans reported more positive attitudes toward their favorite teams and more negative attitudes of the rival team than in politics. However, political supporters reported more negative perceptions and likely behaviors toward the out-group than fans of sport. Additional analysis revealed that the common in-group influenced perceptions. Finally, political affiliation also influenced the way participants view and their likely behaviors. Research and practical implications are discussed, and additional research avenues are introduced.
The chapter updates the Hierarchy of Out-group Derogation (HOD) and Out-group Derogation Spectrum (ODS) by including three additional fandom and group settings. Using the Group Behavior Composite (GBC), an overall measure of out-group negativity was identified for each participant and each setting. Comparative analysis found that group setting influences the greatest amount of negativity in order from (1) religion, (2) online gaming, (3) politics, (4) sport, (5) athletic footwear, (6) mobile phones, (7) streaming, (8) theme parks, (9) gaming console, (10) Disney Parks, (11) science fiction, and (12) comics. Implications of the findings along with future research are discussed.KeywordsRivalryGroup membershipHierarchy of Out-group DerogationOut-group Derogation SpectrumOut-group DerogationGroup member negativity
Conspiracy theories arise during important societal and political events, with negative consequences. Yet, conspiracy theories remain to be investigated in the context of sporting tournaments, in spite of the importance of such events in contemporary societies. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, conspiracy theories alleging that the newly introduced video Assistant Referee (VAR) was used with malevolent motives gained popularity online. In this paper, we used a Twitter content analysis to explore VAR conspiracy theories during the World Cup (N = 2,768 tweets). Conspiracy tweets peaked after eliminations of some teams and were strongly associated with labels referring to self-categorization at the group-level, supporting the notion that conspiracy beliefs are triggered by contexts threatening one’s social identity. Conspiracy tweets were also correlated with tweets expressing skepticism or defiance against the VAR, suggesting that conspiracy beliefs might be related to sport fans’ other identity management strategies. Finally, we drew an intergroup typology of VAR conspiracy beliefs’ recurrent figures, highlighting that higher ordered categorization helped conspiracy narratives and content to adapt throughout the tournament. We discuss the identity management strategy status of sport fans’ conspiracy beliefs.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the fan identification of host residents and international event sport tourists at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The Sport Spectator Identification Scale (SSIS) is used to measure identification with national football teams through the lens of social identity theory. A case study approach saw survey data ( n = 706) collected at the official FIFA Fan Fest in Natal, Brazil. Both host residents and event sport tourists reported high levels of identification with the national team they supported. The data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and the length of time one had been a fan was found to be positively correlated with strength of identification. There was no relationship found between gender nor supporter age and their strength of team identification. This study demonstrates that the SSIS can be used to measure the level of psychological connection supporters have with national football teams. The findings are particularly pertinent for events expanding their servicescape to include fan zones or other activation sites similar to the FIFA Fan Fests.
Many worry that uncivil discourse can undermine democratic processes. Yet, what exactly does it mean for discourse to be uncivil? I argue that there is systematic variation in perceptions of incivility based on the identity of those targeted by uncivil speech. Specifically, I show—via a conjoint survey experiment—that White Americans are less likely to view statements directed at Black Americans as uncivil but more likely to perceive incivility when the target is a woman or a co-partisan. These results suggest an identity-laden aspect of incivility such that it is acceptable to treat Black Americans with less civility but less acceptable to do so for women and co-partisans. The results have implications for how we assess discourse and how that discourse affects the public.
The growing use of social media has resonated with scholars to examine the role of social media in society. Given that sports are an integral part of American society, it is imperative to ask how the use of social media for sports is associated with individuals’ lives. In an attempt to answer this question, the current study employs the concept of social identification and social capital as a theoretical framework. Using survey data collected in the domain of college sports, the path analysis demonstrates the interlinked relationships between the use of social media, social capital, identification, and life satisfaction. Particularly, it is noteworthy that the use of social media is positively related to the production of social capital and life satisfaction both directly and indirectly through identification. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
The current study further investigated rivalry and group behavior by comparing the perceptions and likely behaviors of sport fans regarding their biggest rival teams to that of Star Wars and Star Trek fans. Results showed that sport fandom was correlated with more negativity toward the relevant rival than among science fiction fans. Further, being a fan of both a sport team and a science fiction brand was correlated with more negativity toward the sport rival but more positivity toward the relevant science fiction rival brand. Finally, fans of the Star Wars brand reported greater positivity toward their in-group and more negativity toward the Star Trek brand than the other way around. Discussion focuses on academic and practical implications, along with future avenues of research.
The study addressed the phenomenon of group membership and how group members engage in online commentary. Specifically, the paper investigated comments left in online chatrooms during the three presidential debates in 2016 and three prominent college football rivalry games. Findings showed that people choosing to leave comments in an online chatroom did so to (1) comment on the nature of the rivalry or relationship, (2) comment on the game itself, or (3) to derogate the out-group. Further, a higher proportion of comments left in the political chatrooms were negative toward the out-group compared to the sport setting. Implications are discussed, and the paper presents directions for future inquiry and ideas for addressing out-group negativity in political fandom.
The current study adds to the literature on rivalry and group member behavior by investigating the phenomenon in sport and electronic gaming. Comparisons were made regarding rival perceptions between fans of sport teams and people that participate in electronic gaming via Playstation or Xbox platforms. Results showed that fans of sport reported more positivity toward their favorite brands than did gamers, and were more negative of their rival teams than were gamers of their rival brands. Further, people who identified as both gamers and fans of sport were less negative toward their rival gaming brand. Finally, gamers using the Playstation platform were more negative toward Xbox than were Xbox users toward Playstation. Discussion focuses on implications and avenues for future inquiry.
The current study introduces a hierarchy and spectrum of group member behavior and out-group derogation. Specifically, perceptions and likely behaviors among fans of: sport, politics, online electronic gaming, electronic platform gaming, science fiction, mobile phones, Disney theme parks, comics, and straight-to-consumer streaming entertainment platforms are compared to examine how various settings influence negativity toward relevant out-groups. To accomplish this, the Group Behavior Composite (GBC) is introduced, made up of the four facets of the Rivalry Perception Scale (RPS) and the Glory Out of Reflected Failure (GORFing) scale, to introduce a hierarchy of rival negativity and group member behavior. Discussion focuses on theoretical and practical implications of the GBC and hierarchy, while also calling for future areas of research.
The current study investigated rival perceptions and likely behaviors in the sport and mobile phone settings. In particular, perceptions and likely behaviors of relevant out-groups were compared in the sport setting with users of Apple and Samsung mobile phones. Findings indicate that fans of sport teams reported higher identification with their favorite brands and more negativity toward the out-group than did users/fans of Apple and Samsung mobile phones. Additionally, being a fan of both a sport team and either Apple or Samsung mobile phones was correlated with more positive perceptions of the in-group and out-group. Finally, users of Samsung phones reported more satisfaction when their favorite brand compares favorably to Apple than vice versa. Implications and future research are discussed.
This study examines how marketing executives perceive valuations of sponsorship assets of soccer clubs. It was conducted with French marketing executives in regard to sponsorship assets of four Ligue 1 teams: Paris Saint-Germain and rival Olympique de Marseille, AS Saint-Etienne and rival Olympique Lyonnais. Results confirmed that both rationality and fandom influence how the executives assigned value to the teams’ sponsorship assets, suggesting that soccer fandom is hard to overlook even in cases when one is expected to make rational decisions.
This study aimed to determine whether the father factor in the family effectively identifies individuals who are members of an organization based on volunteerism. For this purpose, the reason individuals identify with the organization has been examined from the perspective of Social Psychology. The questionnaire was used as a data collection tool in the study. First, the frequency, percentage values of the data were calculated using SPSS 22 program. Then the cart (classification and Regression Tree) technique, one of the algorithms of explanatory factor analysis, ANOVA test and Decision Trees, was used to calculate the research data. Finally, field work was carried out on the fans of Turkey's three leading sports clubs, where the membershipis voluntary. In this context, the study, regarded as the big three in Turkey, 656 Fenerbahce, 710 Galatasaray, and 602 Besiktas Sports Club, participated in1968 individuals, including supporters. The working group was formed by taking into account different demographics employing the easy sampling method. According to the study, when fans in the sample were divided according to the teams they kept, it was found that fans who kept the same team as their father had higher team identification scores compared to fans who did not keep the same team as their father. In other words, it is revealed that the father factor underlies the identification of the fans with the team.
As a result of COVID-19, the UK imposed quarantine restrictions in March 2020. All large gatherings of people were against the law, and the professional league football ceased. In June 2020, the season was allowed to start again but with strict health policies and procedures in place, minimal backroom staff, regulations for goal celebration, and stringent cleansing routines. A significant part of the measures was no supporters at games. Instead, games were televised and broadcast live on a range of channels. This unique situation has raised many questions about the role of football in supporters' lives and the need for the “football fix” in the weekly routine. This chapter focuses on efforts made by football clubs to create an atmosphere and maintain an identity/attachment with their supporters. To do this, the authors combine principles and underlying theory from identity theory, attachment theory, community theory, and fandom to propose a framework of fan attachment. They apply the framework to the English Premier League to see how all 20 clubs responded to the challenge of maintaining fan identity.
The present study examined the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) and fans’ identity and fanship. The PLL boasts a uniqueness many sports fans are unfamiliar with—non-geographically affiliated teams. Using socialization theory, social identity theory, and fan identity, the author sought to better understand the fan qualities of the PLL, especially surrounding athlete importance. A Qualtrics survey was distributed through reddit.com/r/lacrosse and major lacrosse forums with the goal to assess fanship toward favorite players, favorite teams, and PLL media consumption. Statistical analyses revealed that those who have a previously constructed lacrosse fan identity, consume more lacrosse media, and have been following a professional or college lacrosse athlete in the past are more likely to embrace the PLL. In a league where geographical affiliation is currently absent, research suggests that encouraging fan adoption of a favorite player is key to creating fans who begin to feel investment, loyalty, and increased team identity.
This study presents a structured model to investigate whether sports fans’ team identification and organization-public relations (OPR) directly affect their attitudes toward their favorite teams or related behavioral intentions. In addition, it examines which antecedents, such as sports media consumption or duration of being a fan, affect team identification and OPR, and investigates whether gender works as a moderator in the model. An online survey was used and a total of 673 responses of the National Football League (NFL) fans were analyzed. The results of path analyses show that sports media consumption directly affects team identification and OPR, while the duration of being a fan did not significantly influence OPR and had only a small effect on team identification. Moreover, the degree of identification and relational perception of an NFL fan directly affect attitudes toward his or her favorite team. Finally, a person’s attitudes toward the favorite team directly affect his or her purchase intention of team-related products and attendance intention. Among paths in the proposed model, only one path, from attitude to attendance intention, was significantly different between the male and female groups.
The relationship between sport, emotions and media is immediate. Football has a strong ability to emotionally involve huge masses of fans, thanks to the dramaturgical and ritualistic qualities of each match and thanks to the collective identification in footballer-heroes (Bifulco e Tirino, 2018). These qualities are further reinvigorated by media stories, which transform fans into media users (Gau, James e Kim, 2009). Due to the emergence of the SMS triangle (Sport, Media, Sponsor) (Martelli 2011, 2014) the figure of the fan is increasingly indistinguishable from the figures of the user and the consumer. However, football fans increasingly have the opportunity to participate in contemporary cultural production, for example by generating UGC to be disseminated in media environments such as social networks. Through the concept of "radical mediation", Grusin argues that the media are configured as emotional environments. On the other hand, social networks constitute a privileged territory of exteriorization of one's emotional commitment (Boccia Artieri et al. 2017). Starting from these sociological and mediological perspectives, the aim of our paper is to investigate media modalities and processes by which football fans' emotions are remediated, on social networks, through the production and dissemination of meme. Meme are relevant examples of user-generated content (Boccia Artieri, 2012, Jenkins, Ford e Green, 2013), and also are central media objects to understand the participatory cultures of web 2.0 and the typical logic of remix cultures. Our paper will try to highlight how these grassroots practices, within a new participatory aesthetic, elaborate the connection between mediation and affection (Grusin 2017), (social) media and emotions, football communication (mainstream and bottom-top) and fans.
This paper employs panel data on Iranian soccer fan hooliganism (i.e., verbal
and physical aggression against rivals) to provide a longitudinal test of
Agnew’s general strain theory. Structural equation models reveal that the
experience of strain, a latent variable comprised of negative life events,
victimization, bullying, and economic pressures, is positively associated
with fan aggression. Moreover, the effects of these strains are both directly
and partially mediated through negative affect (state-based anger).
The following chapter provides an intimate look at sport fans, the identification they have with a favorite team, and their relationship with teams identified as rivals. In particular, team identification and rival perceptions were used to investigate the Glory Out of Reflected Failure (GORFing, excitement when the rival loses to someone other than the favorite team) phenomenon and fan likelihood of considering anonymous acts of aggression. Results showed that team identification influenced the perceptions fan have of their rival teams, the likelihood of considering anonymous aggression, and the GORFing phenomenon. Further, fan rival perceptions also influenced fan anonymous aggression and the likelihood of GORFing. The chapter also answered the call by Havard, Inoue, Dalakas, and Ryan (2017) by showing that GORFing is the competitive nature of schadenfreude and the phenomena are distinct. Discussion focuses on implications of the findings and areas for future research.
We investigate the effects of group identity on discrimination by conducting an audit study in electronics markets in Brazil during the 2014 Brazil World Cup. Buyers’ group membership was identified by the shirts of the national football teams which were controlled in the experiment. We then exploit the outcomes of the WC matches, which arguably affected the salience of sellers’ group identity, to identify discrimination. Although we find that foreigners are overcharged, we do not detect discrimination against buyers wearing a rival team shirt. In contrast, we do detect in-group market favouritism towards buyers wearing the Brazil shirt when Brazil had won a match in the very recent past. Our analysis rejects the explanation that sellers’ behaviour was motivated entirely by economic profits. Instead, the results are more consistent with Becker’s taste-based discrimination theory and shed light on the ways in which in-group and out-group biases occur in market outcomes.
The current study investigated fandom and rivalry toward Disney's and Universal's theme parks. In particular, fans of Disney's theme parks were asked to report their attitudes toward each brand, along with their perceptions and behaviors toward Universal's theme parks. Results showed that participants reported more higher attitudes toward Disney's theme parks than Universal's theme parks. Further, identification with Disney positively influenced attitudes toward Disney's theme parks and more support for and likelihood to attend Universal's theme parks. However, identification with Disney also lead to more negative impressions of Universal's fan behavior and prestige, greater excitement when Disney compares favorably to Universal, and higher likelihood to celebrate a perceived failure by Universal. Finally, participants that reported being a fan of both Disney and Universal were more positive regarding rival perceptions and behaviors. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed, along with areas for future study. 3 Tales from Cinderella's Castle: Examining Fandom and Rivalry within Disney The rivalry phenomenon influences consumers in various ways (e.g., perceptions of groups and group members1, 2, 3, 4, consuming favorite and sponsored products5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, evaluations of organizational messaging11. Although rivalry research using consumer products exists12, 13, much of what we know about the rivalry phenomenon and relevant lessons for practitioners and researchers to this point comes from the sport setting14, 15. At this point, it is appropriate to quantitatively investigate rivalry and its influence on consumers outside of the sport setting, where a gap currently exists in the literature16. In particular, the current study seeks to address this gap by using data of self-reported Disney fans from a larger fandom project to investigate consumer fandom and rivalry regarding Disney's theme parks to both measure rivalry outside of sport, and to assess the validity of scales measuring identification and rivalry in a non-sport setting. It is important to understand consumer fandom and rivalry for several reasons. First, understanding one's identification with a favored brand such as Disney provides researchers with new avenues in which to investigate fandom and attitudes toward brands, and also provides practitioners with valuable information they can use to improve, promote, and offer better service to consumers. Second, gaining more understanding about the rivalry phenomenon will add to the current knowledge base and improve the way we investigate intergroup behavior. Additionally, when practitioners better understand how rivalry influences their consumers, they can improve the way they promote their products using rivalry in a responsible manner. It is important to note that, at times, the sport setting will be referenced throughout the current study. Background and Research Questions
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to examine the interplay between sports fanship and brand-related perceptions in the context of sports sponsorship. The effects of sport fans' self-enhancement strategies: Basking in reflected glory (BIRGing) and cutting off reflected failure (CORFing) were investigated in response to how sports fans connected themselves to a sponsor brand as well as whether their sponsor brand trust and loyalty were activated.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment was designed in the first study to examine immediate effects of team performance and sports fandom on sports fans' connection to the sponsor brand, while an online survey was conducted in the second study to investigate the joint effects of team performance and game venue on sports fans' sponsor brand trust and loyalty.
Findings
The first study found that both team performance and sports fandom yielded significant effects on sports fans' connection to the sponsor brand. Specifically, sports fans with higher fandom reported the highest connection to the sponsor brand after the success of their favorite team, while others with lower fandom exhibited the lowest connection after the failure of their favorite team. The second study suggested that team performance and game venue yielded both main and joint effects on sponsor brand trust and loyalty. Moreover, fan identification mediated the joint effects of team performance and game venue on both sponsor brand trust and loyalty.
Originality/value
Replicating the concepts of BIRGing and CORFing into the context of sports sponsorship, this paper verified the vigorous roles of BIRGing and CORFing in influencing sports fans' perceptions of the sponsor brand. Moreover, both theoretical and practical insights into BIRGing and CORFing concepts applicable to examine the impact of the fan–team relationships on sport fans' perceptions of the sponsor brand through sports sponsorship would be generated for the advancement of sports business research.
This chapter focuses on the Glory Out of Reflected Failure (GORFing) phenomenon and its relationships regarding team identification, rival perceptions, and favorite team behavior intentions. A sample of 555 sport fans provides responses regarding their team identification, the perceptions of rival teams, their likelihood to experience GORFing, and behavioral intentions toward the favorite team when their rival loses to a third, neutral team. Structural model results showed that rival perceptions are associated with the likelihood of experiencing GORFing, which in turn was associated with behavioral intentions following a rival team’s loss to a comparable team, and mediated the relationship between rival perceptions and behavioral intentions. Contributions and implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed, and avenues for future study are introduced.
Peripheral membership status in a desirable ingroup was predicted to elevate outgroup derogation when Ss believed other ingroup members might learn of their responses. Less negativity toward outgroups was expected when peripheral members' responses were to remain private. Core ingroup members, in contrast, were not expected to show public-private differences in derogation of out-groups. The results of 2 experiments supported these predictions, with peripheral but not core ingroup members advocating the most coercion for the outgroup under public conditions in both laboratory-created ingroups (Experiment 1) and naturally occurring groups that had meaning for the participants (Experiment 2). Thus, outgroup derogation can serve a public presentation function that allows for enhancement of an insecure status within a desirable ingroup.
Past examinations of highly identified sports fans have typically focused on the positive aspects of identification with the team in terms of attitudes, participation, attendance at events, merchandise purchases, and other pro-team related behaviors. The current research, however, investigates the dark side of what may be seen as excessive fan identification - characterized by dysfunctional behaviors such as excessive complaining and confronting others at sporting events. This study presents a measure useful in classifying highly identified fans in terms of their dysfunctional nature and delineates associated problem behaviors (viz., event drinking, blasting officials, aberrant media consumption) and differentiating individual characteristics.
As a result of increased geographic mobility, industrialization, and the like, traditional social and community ties have declined. Conversely, sports spectatorship has continued to flourish. We argue that strong identification with a specific sports team provides a buffer from feelings of depression and alienation, and at the same time, fosters feelings of belongingness and self worth. In effect, sports team identification replaces more traditional family and community-based attachments to the larger social structure. Three studies find support for these notions, using basketball and baseball fans. The relationship between degree of team identification and team success was also examined; it was only significant for individuals who identify with teams geographically removed from themselves. Discussion focuses on the positive implications of sports team identification for self-esteem maintenance and the social ties it creates.
In two studies, the authors investigated the impact of threat on the perception of extremity and homogeneity among the members of a group. They relied on the Group Attribution Error paradigm and asked participants to estimate the attitudes in a group of voters. Depending on the condition, the decision rules were such that the proposition allegedly passed or failed. The degree of threat of the group was varied by informing participants that the group represented a small (4%) or substantial (40%) proportion of the population living in the area. Consistent with the Group Attribution Error literature, the outcome of the vote influenced participants’ inferences about the extremity of the voters’ attitude. More positive (negative) attitudes were inferred in the case of a positive (negative) outcome of the vote. This effect was qualified by the level of threat. Participants inferred relatively more extreme and more homogeneous attitudes among the members of a threatening group.
It is argued that (a) social identification is a perception of oneness with a group of persons; (b) social identification stems from the categorization of individuals, the distinctiveness and prestige of the group, the salience of outgroups, and the factors that traditionally are associated with group formation; and (c) social identification leads to activities that are congruent with the identity, support for institutions that embody the identity, stereotypical perceptions of self and others, and outcomes that traditionally are associated with group formation, and it reinforces the antecedents of identification. This perspective is applied to organizational socialization, role conflict, and intergroup relations.
Constructed and tested a measure of sports team identification in 2 studies with a total of 546 undergraduates. Several behavioral, affective, and cognitive reactions among sports spectators were used to validate the team identification measure. Ss who strongly identified with a specific sports team, relative to those spectators moderate or low in identification, reported more involvement with the team, displayed a more ego-enhancing pattern of attributions for the team's successes, had more positive expectations concerning future team performances, exhibited greater willingness to invest larger amounts of time and money to watch the team play, and were more likely to believe that fans of the team they are identified with possess special qualities. (French, Spanish, German & Italian abstracts) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Experimenters observed the number of sport-team-identified fans who contributed money to charity workers before and after 6 football games. Charity workers were identified as supporters of 1 of the 2 teams competing, or of neither team. Consistent with predictions, more fans contributed to in-group than to out-group-supporting charity workers. In addition, charity workers identified with either team received a higher frequency of contributions from fans of both teams together after the game relative to before; this pattern was reversed among charity workers not identified with a team. This unexpected finding suggests an increased salience of a general sport-fan identification after the game relative to before. Finally, fans of winning teams in particular contributed more to any charity worker (i.e., collapsed across in-group, out-group, and neutral supporters) after the game than before, but this pattern was reversed among fans of losing teams. This final finding is discussed with reference to both self-categorization theory and the literature on mood and prosocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors argue that self-image maintenance processes play an important role in stereotyping and prejudice. Three studies demonstrated that when individuals evaluated a member of a stereotyped group, they were less likely to evaluate that person negatively if their self-images had been bolstered through a self-affirmation procedure, and they were more likely to evaluate that person stereotypically if their self-images had been threatened by negative feedback. Moreover, among those individuals whose self-image had been threatened, derogating a stereotyped target mediated an increase in their self-esteem. The authors suggest that stereotyping and prejudice may be a common means to maintain one's self-image, and they discuss the role of self-image-maintenance processes in the context of motivational, sociocultural, and cognitive approaches to stereotyping and prejudice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A review of the "personal space" research reveals that an overwhelming accumulation of evidence weighs against the use of projective measurement strategies, while the interrelations between the various real-life measures remain poorly documented. A "nondichotomous carrier mechanism" reconceptualization is proposed to reorient investigation of the confused pattern of sex effects. Other findings show that once data based on projective measures are discarded, it becomes clear that personal space gradually increases in size between 3–21 yrs of age. The evidence regarding cultural and subcultural differences in personal space is considerably weaker than has frequently been assumed. The present review further reveals that formerly implicit links between personal space and crowding have congealed into specific and fruitful theoretical parallels. The use of attribution, expectancy, and equilibrium theories in interpreting the results of personal space research is discussed, and the causes and consequences of personal space preferences are considered in terms of personality, situational effects, and acquaintanceship. (12 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
D. L. Wann (2002) proposed the team identification-psychological health model, hypothesizing that identification with a local sport team will be related to psychological well-being. The model also proposes that identification with distant sport teams and mere fandom will not be related to well-being. In a study involving Australian Rules Football, the authors extended previous research by testing the model with persons from a different culture and examining identifications involving a different sport and level of competition. Participants completed a questionnaire packet assessing their levels of fandom. identification with a local Australian Rules Football team, and identification with a favorite team if different from the target team, as well as measures assessing psychological well-being. With respect to social well-being, the results supported the model: Personal well-being was not related to identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Hypothesized that heightening ingroup cohesion would increase discrimination toward an outgroup. This prediction was not supported. Instead, it was found that for the most part, only high cohesiveness elicits differential biases toward ingroup and outgroup. 44 male undergraduates were randomly assigned to pairs in either a low or high cohesiveness condition. The experimental task was a modified Prisoner's Dilemma game where the participants were 2 dyads rather than 2 individuals. Members of high-cohesive groups were more cooperative toward comembers than toward an outgroup; moreover, they evaluated their comembers more positively than outgroup members. In contrast, low-cohesive groups failed to exhibit either tendency toward greater ingroup favoritism. Results are tentatively interpreted in terms of a cognitive differentiation hypothesis suggesting that (a) cohesiveness leads group members to cognitively differentiate ingroup from outgroup and (b) ingroup-outgroup differentiation is a necessary and sufficient condition for eliciting intergroup bias. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies examined the effect of game outcome on sports fans' estimates of the team's as well as their own future performance. Consistent with social identity theory, it was expected that Ss for whom fanship was an important identity would respond to team success and failure as personal success and failure. Ss watched a live basketball game; then, in the context of a 2nd, unrelated experiment, Ss estimated their own performance at several tasks. Results indicated that fans' mood and self-esteem were affected by game outcome. More important, fans' estimates of both the team's and their own future performance were significantly better in the win than in the loss condition. Furthermore, path analyses revealed that changes in self-esteem but not mood played a mediational role in fans' estimates of both team and their own future performance. In addition, comparisons with conditions of personal success and failure indicated that team outcome and personal outcome had similar effects on fans' estimates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two experiments investigated how in-group identification, manipulated with a bogus pipeline technique affects group members' desire for individual mobility to another group. In the first experiment (
N = 88), the in-group had low status, and group boundaries were either permeable or impermeable. Low identifiers perceived the group as less homogeneous, were less committed to their group, and more strongly desired individual mobility to a higher status group than did high identifiers. The structural possibility of mobility afforded by permeable group boundaries had no comparable effect. The second experiment (
N = 51) investigated whether in-group identification can produce similar effects when relative group status is unknown. Even in the absence of an identity threat, low identifiers were less likely to see the groups as homogeneous, felt less committed to their group, and more strongly desired individual mobility than did high identifiers. Results are discussed with reference to social identity and self-categorization theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The impact of the history of one's own group's treatment of another group on feelings of collective guilt and behavioral reactions to this guilt were examined in 2 studies. In a laboratory experiment it was shown that it is possible to elicit feelings of group-based guilt and that those are distinct from feelings of personal guilt. In a 2nd study, a field experiment, low-identified group members acknowledged the negative aspects of their own nation's history and felt more guilt compared with high identifiers when both negative and positive aspects of their nation's history were made salient. Perceptions of intragroup variability and out-group compensation closely paralleled the interactive pattern on guilt. Links between social identity theory and the experience of specific emotions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Peripheral membership status in a desirable ingroup was predicted to elevate outgroup derogation when Ss believed other ingroup members might learn of their responses. Less negativity toward outgroups was expected when peripheral members' responses were to remain private. Core ingroup members, in contrast, were not expected to show public-private differences in derogation of outgroups. The results of 2 experiments supported these predictions, with peripheral but not core ingroup members advocating the most coercion for the outgroup under public conditions in both laboratory-created ingroups (Experiment 1) and naturally occurring groups that had meaning for the participants (Experiment 2). Thus, outgroup derogation can serve a public presentation function that allows for enhancement of an insecure status within a desirable ingroup.
Distinctions are made between global and specific, personal and social, and trait and state self-esteem, and these are used to structure a review of over 40 studies concerning social identity theory's hypothesis that (a) intergroup discrimination elevates self-esteem and (b) low self-esteem motivates discrimination. It is observed that researchers have tended to employ measures of global personal trait self-esteem in their investigations of this self-esteem hypothesis, and it is argued that measures of specific social state self-esteem are more consistent with social identity theory's assumptions. Although no convincing evidence is found for the self-esteem hypothesis in its full and unqualified form, it is argued that this is due to a lack of specificity in its formulation and it is suggested that a more qualified and specific version of the hypothesis may be more appropriate.
The current study tested three predictions generated from Wann's (2004) Team Identification - (Social) Psychological Health Model. Specifically, it was hypothesized that social well-being would be a) positively related to identification with a local sport team, b) not related to identification with a distant team, and c) not related to mere sport fandom. The current investigation expanded on previous research by assessing social well-being through participants' satisfaction with their social life (and their collective self-esteem) and by using regression analyses simultaneously examining the impact of the three predictor variables on social psychological health. Results from 155 university students confirmed expectations and substantiated Wann's model. Discussion includes suggestions for future research.
Although a large amount of research has demonstrated that sports fans are biased in their evaluations of their favorite teams, no research had reviewed spectators’ evaluations of other spectators. Such an examination was the focus of the present study. In order to test the hypothesis that spectators would show a bias toward fellow ingroup fans and that this bias would be most prominent among spectators high in identification with the team, 103 undergraduate basketball fans were asked to read a scenario describing the behavior of a fellow or rival fan attending a basketball game. Respondents’ evaluations of this target fan and the fan’s behavior supported the hypothesized interaction. Discussion centers on the motivations underlying the relationships between identification, group membership, and evaluations.
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In this article, we introduce the concept of social identity complexity—a new theoretical construct that refers to an individual's subjective representation of the interrelationships among his or her multiple group identities. Social identity complexity reflects the degree of overlap perceived to exist between groups of which a person is simultaneously a member When the overlap of multiple ingroups is perceived to be high, the individual maintains a relatively simplified identity structure whereby memberships in different groups converge to form a single ingroup identification. When a person acknowledges, and accepts, that memberships in multiple ingroups are not fully convergent or overlapping, the associated identity structure is both more inclusive and more complex. In this article, we define the concept of social identity complexity and discuss its possible antecedents and consequences. Results from initial studies support the prediction that social identity complexity is affected by stress and is related to personal value priorities and to tolerance of outgroup members.
The two volumes of The Social Dimension present a comprehensive survey of the major developments in social psychology which took place in Europe during the very active 1970s and 1980s. They aim to capture the diversity and vitality of the discipline, stress the growing emphasis on fully social analyses of social psychological phenomena - hence 'the social dimension' - and to provide a valuable resource for researchers in the future. Although comprehensive in scope, the volumes are not written in the formal style of a reference handbook. Instead, the authors of the thirty-three chapters, drawn from more than a dozen mainly European countries and all experts in their own fields, were invited to present their own personal overviews of the issues in social psychology on which they were actively working. Both volumes are organized into three main Parts. Volume 1 is concerned with the social development of the child, interpersonal communication and relationships, and the social reality, group processes, and intergroup relations. This ambitious enterprise has produced a distinctive yet authoritative summary and evaluation of the growth points of social psychology in Europe which will interest and influence not only social psychologists but many readers from related disciplines.
A naturalistic American study of territorial spacing on a beach by Edney and Jordan-Edney (1974) was replicated in France and West Germany using theoretical notions developed by Hall (1976). Some of the original Edney and Jordan-Edney patterns were found to have significant cultural variations. Larger groups, mixed-sex groups, and females tended to claim less space per person than smaller groups, same-sex groups and males, while some other patterns were not generalized. The results were consistent with the suggestion that cross-national commonalities in territorial patterns are more important than within-culture variations.
Hypothesized that there would be a significant positive relationship between level of identification for a sports team and perceptions of the ability to influence athletic competitions within that sport. In Study 1, with 104 undergraduates, high levels of identification were related to greater perceptions of influence. In Study 2, with 156 undergraduates, high-identification fans reported an increase in pre- to postgame positive emotions following a win and an increase in negative emotions following a loss. Study 3, with 267 spectators, was used to examine possible changes in team identification as a result of competition outcome for historically successful and marginally successful teams. The results indicate that although past team success was an important predictor of identification level, levels were not affected by game outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Based on past research and theory, a Team Identification - Psychological Health Model is proposed. The following predictions were generated from this model: 1) high levels of identification with a local sport team will lead to positive psychological health, 2) high levels of identification with a distant sport team will not be related to psychological health, and 3) high levels of mere sport fandom will not be related to psychological health. Previous work had documented support for Predictions 2 and 3. With respect to the relationship between identification with a local team and well-being (Prediction 1), although past research had found a positive relationship between local team identification and well-being, this work was correlational in nature, and, consequently, information suggesting causality was lacking. The current study used a longitudinal cross-lag design to examine causal paths between team identification and psychological health, thereby testing Prediction 1. Forty-five individuals completed measures of identification with a local sport team and psychological health at two different times. Structural equation analyses indicated a significant positive link between identification at Time 1 and psychological health at Time 2. The link from psychological health at Time 1 to identification at Time 2 was not significant. Discussion centers on operationalizing "local" and "distant" teams and the defense mechanisms used by fans following their team's poor performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Conducted 2 studies on the impact of sports-team identification on various forms of sports-knowledge acquisition. One thousand two hundred and twenty-five male and female undergraduate students' degree of identification with the University of Kansas men's basketball team was assessed, and their objective factual knowledge about the team and about college basketball in general was tested in Study. The degree of team identification predicted objective knowledge about the team and the sport, without any independent contribution from being a sports fan in general. Forty male and female undergraduate students with varying degrees of identification with the University of Kansas men's basketball team were asked to characterize the fans of this team and the fans of a team perceived as being its greatest rival in Study 2. Highly identified Ss reported more subjectively held information and displayed an in-group favoritism effect. The role of motivational and cognitive factors in sports fans' beliefs and biases is discussed. (French, Spanish, German & Italian abstracts) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This book provides an overview and analysis of sport fans, examining the role played by and the impact of sport in the lives of sport fans and spectators, and the importance of sport for society at large. It also provides an understanding of the theories of fan behavior, as well as analysis of the empirical research on the emotions, thoughts, and behaviors of sport fans. Using a multidisciplinary approach, a variety of topics such as team identification, hero worship, and fan self-esteem are identified and examined. Phenomena such as the importance of attendance for communities and the impact of fans on society are also discussed. The book provides an understanding of the importance of sport for fans themselves and for society as a whole. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Affective reactions to a football game were expected and found to influence the perception of a threatening event outside of sports. The outlook of fans distressed about their team's defeat proved to be more pessimistic than that of fans exuberant about their team's victory. In December 1990, distraught fans deemed a feared war with Iraq significantly more likely and devastating, in loss of life, than did their ecstatic counterparts.
This paper reports the results of a meta-analytic integration of the results of 137 tests of the ingroup bias hypothesis. Overall, the ingroup bias effect was highly significant and of moderate magnitude. Several theoretically informative determinants of the ingroup bias effect were established. This ingroup bias effect was significantly stronger when the ingroup was made salient (by virtue of proportionate size and by virtue of reality of the group categorization). A significant interaction between the reality of the group categorization and the relative status of the ingroup revealed a slight decrease in the ingroup bias effect as a function of status in real groups, and a significant increase in the ingroup bias effect as a function of status in artificial groups. Finally, an interaction between item relevance and ingroup status was observed, such that higher status groups exhibited more ingroup bias on more relevant attributes, whereas lower status groups exhibited more ingroup bias on less relevant attributes. Discussion considers the implications of these results for current theory and future research involving the ingroup bias effect.
The authors argue that self-image maintenance processes play an important role in stereotyping and prejudice. Three studies demonstrated that when individuals evaluated a member of a stereotyped group, they were less likely to evaluate that person negatively if their self-images had been bolstered through a self-affirmation procedure, and they were more likely to evaluate that person stereotypically if their self-images had been threatened by negative feedback.' Moreover, among those individuals whose self-image had been threatened, derogating a stereotyped target mediated an increase in their self-esteem. The authors suggest that stereotyping and prejudice may be a common means to maintain one's self-image, and they discuss the role of self-image-maintenance processes in the context of motivational, sociocultural, and cognitive approaches to stereotyping and prejudice. A most striking testament to the social nature of the human psyche is the extent to which the self-concept—that which is the very essence of one's individuality—is integrally linked with interpersonal dynamics. Since the earliest days of the for-mal discipline of psychology, the significant influences of a number of social factors on the self-concept have been recog-nized. A central focus of sociocultural and social-cognitive approaches to psychology has concerned the ways in which individuals' self-concepts are defined and refined by the people around them. This is evident in early discussions of the social nature of individuals' self-concepts (Cooley, 1902; Mead, 1934) and of social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954), and it contin-ues to be evident in more recent work, such as that concerning self-fulfilling prophecies (e.g. The converse focus—the self-concept's influence on percep-tions of and reactions toward others—has been recognized more fully within the last two decades, through, for example, research on self-schemas (H.
A structural equation model tested the role of degree of identification with a group (Americans) and level of collective self-esteem as determinants of outgroup derogation under identity-threatening and non-threatening conditions. High identification and reductions in collective self-esteem following a threat to that identity lead to outgroup derogation, but level of collective self-esteem did not predict outgroup derogation in the no-threat condition. The consequences of derogating both threat-relevant (Russians) and threat-irrelevant nationalities for subsequent self-esteem were assessed. As predicted by social identity theory, higher amounts of derogation of the threat-relevant outgroup in the identity-threatened condition elevated subsequent collective self-esteem. Derogation of threat-irrelevant outgroups did not have this positive esteem consequence; in fact, increased derogation of irrelevant outgroups reduced subsequent self-esteem. In the no-threat condition, amount of derogation directed towards either type of outgroup did not significantly influence subsequent self-esteem, with the overall pattern being opposite to what was observed in the threat condition. Implications for theories concerning self-processes as instigators of outgroup derogation and the consequences of intergroup comparisons for collective self-esteem are discussed.
Spectators often attribute their athletic team's victories to internal causes and its losses to external causes (e.g., A. H. Hastorf & H. Cantril, 1954; R. R. Lau, 1984; L. Mann, 1974). This self-serving attributional pattern is most common among fans with a strong psychological attachment to their team (D. L. Wann & T. J. Dolan, 1994). The authors examined the relationships among identification, game outcome, and controllable and stable attributions. Their 1st hypothesis was that high-identification fans after a victory, compared with high-identification fans after a loss and low-identification fans after either outcome, would be more likely to exhibit self-serving attributional patterns by attributing their team's successes to controllable and stable causes. Their 2nd hypothesis was that high-identification fans would be more likely than low-identification fans to attribute their team's successes to internal causes and its failures to external causes. U.S. college students high and low in identification first watched their university's men's basketball team win or lose a contest and then completed measures of identification and attribution. The results confirmed the hypotheses.
In two studies, the authors examined the circumstances under which discrimination has an identity confirmation function or an instrumental function (instigating collective action). In Study 1, participants (N = 601) described a situation in which they had discriminated and then completed measures of functionality, group identification, and group threat. Both functions were predicted by group identification, whereas the instrumental function (but not identity confirmation) operated under group threat. In Study 2, "die-hard" soccer fans (N = 1,546) suggested soccer chants in reaction to either a group-reinforcing (own team scores) or group-threatening (other team scores) situation and rated the perceived functionality of the song. Although both of these conditions evoked discriminating songs, as predicted, these served a more identity-confirming function in the reinforcing situation but a more instrumental function (pepping up the team) in the threat situation. Results are discussed in terms of a contextual-functional model of intergroup discrimination.
Assessing the psychological well-being of sport fans using the Profile of Mood States: The importance of team identification
- D L Wann
- S Inman
- C L Ensor
- R D Gates
- D S Caldwell
Wann, D. L., Inman, S., Ensor, C. L., Gates, R. D., & Caldwell, D. S. (1999). Assessing the psychological well-being of sport fans using the Profile of Mood States: The impor-tance of team identification. International Sports Journal, 3, 81–90.
Outcome's influence on sport fans' computer mediated attributions
- C M End
- J Eaton
- J Campbell
- J M Kretschmar
- D Mueller
- B Dietz-Uhler
End, C. M., Eaton, J., Campbell, J., Kretschmar, J. M., Mueller, D., & Dietz-Uhler, B. (2003). Outcome's influence on sport fans' computer mediated attributions. Interna-tional Sports Journal, 7(2), 128–139.
The five-factor model of personality and the psychological health of highly identified sport fans
- D L Wann
- M D Dunham
- M L Byrd
- B L Keenan
Wann, D. L., Dunham, M. D., Byrd, M. L., & Keenan, B. L. (2004). The five-factor model of personality and the psychological health of highly identified sport fans. Internation-al Sports Journal, 8(2), 28–36.
The home-field advantage
- J Edwards