The Consequences of Sports Fan Identification

One of the most interesting aspects of sports fans is their degree of involvement and affiliation with their favorite sports team. Indeed, perusal of the popular press suggests that sports fans reveal their connection to a favorite team in interesting ways, including wearing team apparel, displaying bumper stickers on their cars, and engaging in celebratory behaviors that range from fairly passive (e.g., cheering) to utterly destructive (e.g., tearing down goalposts). For some fans of sports, their level of involvement is relatively low key, whereas for other sports fans, they seem to live and breathe for their favorite team. What accounts for the differences in these fans? The answer likely lies in their level of sports fan identification, or their psychological attachment to a sport or a team. Some sports fans identify particularly strongly with a team, and this psychological connection can have many consequences. The purpose of this chapter is to review the affective, cognitive, and behavioral consequences of identifying as a sports fan. However, before reviewing these consequences of sports fan identification, we review the definition of a group as well as social identity theory, which provides the basis for the study of sports fan identification. We also discuss the various conceptualizations of sports fan identity, how it is measured, as well as why fans identify with a team. It is important to be clear about the distinction between fans and spectators. Sports fans are those who actively follow a sports team or sport, while sports spectators are those who physically witness a sporting event (i.e., attend a sporting event, watch one on television, listen to one on a radio; Wann, 1995, 1997). Sports fans establish a psychological connection with the team, whereas spectators merely observe a sporting event. Most sports fans are also sports spectators. Clearly, both fans and spectators are equally important for a variety of reasons. However, the focus of this chapter is on sports fans.