The ABCs of Sport Fandom: What We Know and Where We Should Go - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The ABCs of Sport Fandom: What We Know and Where We Should Go

Daniel L. Wann, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology Murray State University

Overview of Tonight’s Talk

• Why should we care about sport fandom
• The Affective reactions of sport fans
• The Behavioral reactions of sport fans
• The Cognitive reactions of sport fans
• Gazing into the crystal ball

Where are the Citations?

Why Should We Care About Sport Fandom

• Pervasiveness in society
• Television
• Radio
• Internet
• Movies (and not just sport movies)

Why Should We Care About Sport Fandom

• Sport fandom brings people together

Why Should We Care About Sport Fandom

• Sport fandom aids in meeting basic

psychological needs

• Need to belong
• Need for distinctiveness

The Affective Reactions

• f Sport Fans

The Affective Reactions

• f Sport Fans
• Reactions to performance
• Disposition Theory
• Types of affective reactions: Why

so much negativity?

• Negativity bias
• Maybe James Bond was right

The Affective Reactions

• f Sport Fans
• Reactions to nonperformance

events

• Player injuries
• Schadenfreude
• Changing logos
• Teams leaving
• Paraphrasing Seinfeld

The Affective Reactions

• f Sport Fans
• The impact of affective reactions
• Sport outcomes:
• Positive Word-of-mouth
• Increased consumption
• Non-sport outcomes:
• Outlook on life
• Work performance
• Self-confidence
• Voter decisions
• Economic outcomes:
• Personal and societal

The Affective Reactions

• f Sport Fans
• Some final points about sport fan

affect

• Sustained success (and failure)
• Affective forecasting
• Duration

The Behavioral Reactions

• f Sport Fans
• Consumption
• Two powerful influences (we

think)

• Team identification
• Fan motivation (e.g., eustress,

escape)

The Behavioral Reactions

• f Sport Fans
• Attempting to use identification and

motivation to increase consumption

• Intentions rather than behaviors
• Correlation does not equal causation
• (e.g., self-esteem motivation and

consumption)

• And what can we do with the information?
• Why I am a fan of the…

The Behavioral Reactions

• f Sport Fans

The Behavioral Reactions

• f Sport Fans

The Behavioral Reactions

• f Sport Fans

The Behavioral Reactions

• f Sport Fans

The Behavioral Reactions

• f Sport Fans

The Behavioral Reactions

• f Sport Fans
• Sport fan aggression

“I was surrounded by pimps, rapists, and murderers. It was like being in the stands of an L.A. Raiders game.”

Lieutenant Frank Drebin, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

The Behavioral Reactions

• f Sport Fans
• Fan aggression can be

facilitated by many variables including:

• Modeling violent sports
• Arousal
• Deindividuation
• Names of rival contests
• Frustration from bad calls

The Behavioral Reactions

• f Sport Fans
• Three particularly powerful variables
• Alcohol consumption
• Team identification
• Dysfunctional fandom

The Cognitive Reactions

• f Sport Fans
• Coping through biased

cognitions

• Self-serving attributions
• Biased perceptions and

recollections

• Pessimism (proactive and

retroactive)

The Future of Sport Fandom

• Gazing into the crystal ball
• Changes on the horizon that may impact the fan

experience

• Topics needing greater attention from social scientists

The Future of Sport Fandom

• Changes on the horizon that

may impact the fan experience

• Changing technology
• Safety (player and fan)
• Legalization of sport gambling

The Future of Sport Fandom

• Topics that need greater interest

from social scientists studying sport fandom

• Changes in fandom across the lifespan
• Cross-cultural research
• Positive sport fandom
• Sport fandom and evolutionary processes

Thank You!

dwann@murraystate.edu