Thesis
The effect of athletes' off-field immoral behaviors on fans' emotions and team identification: in collegiate sport perspective
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2017
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102510
Abstract
Team identification can be defined as a specific form of social identification that reflects a fan's psychological connection and attachment to a team. Fans with high levels of team identification support their teams. As one of the biggest factors composing team identification, athletes' off field immoral behaviors (i.e., drug use, driving under the influence, rape, violence, etc.) are the center of attention to fans. Although there have been some efforts to understand the relationship between athletes' off-field immoral behaviors and team identification, limited research has examined the relationship between fans' emotions evoked by athletes' off-field immoral behaviors and team identification. Emotion represents a necessary factor in human behaviors and has a significant effect on thought and action. Emotion also influences decision-making such as evaluation, intention and choice. The purpose of current research was exploring how negative emotions (i.e., anger, disgust) evoked by athletes' immoral behaviors influence fans' team identification. The results of this study illustrate that different kinds of athletes' off-field immoral behavior evoke different levels of anger and disgust in fans. Especially, fans' feeling of disgust at athletes' off-field immoral behaviors affect fans' team identification negatively. Furthermore, results indicated that immoral behaviors closely related to disgust factors (e.g., acts that can be deemed as polluting the body or soul) such as child rape and rape, seriously affect fans' team identification. Specifically, the results showed that child rape and rape affected fans' team identification decrease with levels of 1.6 and 1.3. Violence and DUI that are not related to disgust factors, however, affected fans' team identification decrease with a level of 0.3.
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Details
- Title
- The effect of athletes' off-field immoral behaviors on fans' emotions and team identification
- Creators
- Youngjik Lee
- Contributors
- Yong Chae Rhee (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Educational Leadership, Sport Studies, and Educational/Counseling Psychology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525128001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis