Social Identity Theory in Sports Fandom Research

Author(s):  
Nicholas Hirshon

Sports fans are known to engage in BIRGing, or basking in reflected glory after their team wins, and CORFing, cutting off reflected failure following a team loss. These phenomena are related to social identity theory, which examines how group memberships shape a person's self-image. This chapter explores how media-attentive sports fans internalize victory and externalize defeat by charting the simultaneous developments in the 1970s of social identity theory, advanced by European social psychologists, and BIRGing and CORFing, which are rooted in a landmark study on college students wearing school-identifying apparel after the university football team won. The chapter also examines how social identity has served and can continue to be utilized as the theoretical backbone for research on mass-mediated sports fandom.

Author(s):  
Samuel D. Hakim

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.


1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 150-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Campbell

Social Identity Theory in the Bristol tradition has been criticized for paying too little attention to the way in identity is shaped and constrained by a dynamically changing social context. The article develops an extension of Social Identity Theory which aims to address this criticism. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted with working-class township residents in the Durban area, 20 women and 20 men, aged between 17 and 23 years. Interviews were analysed by means of a coding frame within which identity construction was conceptualized in terms of a trialogue amongst Life Challenges, Group Memberships and Behavioural Options. Twenty key Life Challenges facing township youth are identified, as are the eleven most important Group Memberships providing youth with raw materials with which to construct their identities.


Author(s):  
Timothy Kuhn ◽  
Jayne Simpson

Across theories of identity and subjectivity, discourse and communication are central, constitutive elements. This chapter clarifies conceptions of these notions and portrays them as separate yet connected. It then reviews four broad lines of theorizing identity in which discourse and communication are prominent: Social Identity Theory (SIT), narrative theorizing, critical/poststructural approaches, and emerging relational ontologies. In addition to drawing out contrasting conceptions of agency marking the four perspectives, the chapter shows how discourse and communication are central to the existence, persistence, and transformation of identities. To do so, the chapter employs illustrations from sports fandom, branding, and peer bullying. The key insight of the chapter is that, across these four traditions, discourse and communication are increasingly understood not as representational, but as constitutive: identities do not draw upon discourse and communication to express or represent themselves, but instead are generated, sustained, and altered exclusively in and through discursive and communicative practices.


2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jillian C. Banfield ◽  
Craig W. Blatz ◽  
Katherine B. Starzyk ◽  
Michael A. Ross

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayoub Bouguettaya

In this paper, the interaction between relevant group membership (i.e. gender) and context on leader perceptions was analysed within the paradigm of social identity theory. It was hypothesised that sharing group membership with a leader would result in to more positive ratings of a leader, while context would change how leaders were viewed depending on how much they embodied group values in relation to other leaders. The issue of contention to be contrasted between leaders was gender inequality. This context effect pattern was predicted to be different for males than females; males were believed to rate a leader more positively when the leader expressed a contextually more dismissive view, while females were predicted to rate a leader better when the leader expressed a contextually more proactive view. The hypotheses about the main effects of gender and context were supported; however, the results for the interaction were mixed in support. Gender and context did significantly interact, but it was not always in the directions predicted. Further research into this interaction is needed.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeeshan Ahmed Bhatti ◽  
Ghulam Ali Arain ◽  
Hina Mahboob Yasin ◽  
Muhammad Asif Khan ◽  
Muhammad Shakaib Akram

PurposeDrawing on social identity theory and prosocial behaviour research, this study explores how people's integration of their offline and online social activities through Facebook cultivates their Facebook citizenship behaviour (FCB). It also offers further insight into the underlying mechanism of offline and online social activity integration - FCB relation by investigating people's social identification with their offline and online social groups as possible mediators.Design/methodology/approachBased on social identity theory (SIT) literature, community citizenship behaviour and offline-online social activity integration through Facebook, we developed a conceptual model, which was empirically tested using data from 308 Facebook usersFindingsThe results confirm that the participants' offline-online social activity integration via Facebook is positively linked to their FCB. Further, the integration of offline and online social activity through Facebook positively affects how a person identifies with their offline and online social groups, which in turn causes them to display FCB. In addition, offline/online social identification mediates the integration – FCB relation.Practical implicationsIn practice, it is interesting to see people's tendency towards altruistic behaviours within groups they like to associate themselves with. Those who share their Facebook network with their offline friends can use such network to seek help and support.Originality/valueFrom a theoretical perspective, unlike past research, this study examines how individuals' offline-online social activity integration via Facebook helps them associate with groups. In addition, this study investigates social identification from an offline and online perspective.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torsten Schmidts ◽  
Deborah Shepherd

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use social identity theory to explore factors that contribute to the development of family social capital. Effects are investigated both for the family and the business. Design/methodology/approach – A single in-depth case study focussing on the family unit was coducted within a fourth-generation family business involved in the arts retailing. Findings – The findings suggest that social identity theory is a useful lens to explore the development of family social capital. The six themes identified highlight that there is a normative and an affective dimension, leading to family members’ desire to uphold the status of the business. Evidence suggests that the normative factors may be both positively and negatively related to the development of family social capital, due to their potentially restrictive nature. Originality/value – The paper’s findings imply that social identity can contribute to understanding family dynamics. Evidence highlights various factors for family members that are not involved in the family business to uphold its status. This is attributed to the emotional significance of the business to the family’s identity. Furthermore, this paper suggests that the strong focus on norms and values, which developed gradually, may have adverse effects on the identification with the business and the willingness to uphold its status. Propositions are offered to provide guidance for future research to investigate this controversial evidence regarding the impact of value orientation on family social capital.


Res Publica ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 36 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 343-359
Author(s):  
Marc Jacquemain ◽  
René Doutrelepont ◽  
Michel Vandekeere

At first view, the methodology of survey research may seem rather unsuitable to the study of such "holistic" phenomena as collective and social identities.  That difficulty vanishes - at least partly - as soon as we consider social identity as the link between the individual and his belongings, as does the "social identity theory", developed from the work of Taffel and Turner.  From there on, survey research may prove to be a useful device to cope with some main characteristics of social identity: mainly its variability among groups and classes within a same society and its particular sensitivity to socio-political contexts.  Survey research, combined with the social identity theory may help to test historical assumptions at a macro-social level. It may also give some ''flesh" and some additional realism to the micro-theories of social behaviour, which are too often limited by their conception of a strictly rational and interested agent.


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