Batting Outside the Field

This study examines the relationship between cognitive awareness and perceived knowledge of sports fans’ social media engagement behaviors. Data were collected through an online survey of 236 adults from India who identified as Indian Premier League (IPL) fans. The findings of the study suggest that perceived knowledge and cognitive awareness of sports are precursors to social media engagement behaviors of sports fans. Further, sports fandom mediates links between perceived knowledge and cognitive awareness with social media engagement. The findings hold special significance for contemporary COVID scenarios because physical engagement is being substituted by digital engagement.

Współczesny stosunek do normy językowej w świetle memów internetowych

The aim of the article is to present how the approach towards linguistic correctness of current users of the Polish language is reflected in Internet memes. The starting point is the assumption that language norms in online communication are treated in a different manner than usual. However, the high frequency of deviations from norms in online texts (especially in memes) does not mean a simple neglecting of the rules of linguistic correctness, as it includes both unintentional and accidental breaches of norms (coming from ignorance, lack of knowledge of rules or carelessness) and intentional actions of functional character, dictated mostly by treating the language in a ludic manner. In this article, the analysis of deviations from norms in memes is subordinated to presenting their purpose, which could be one of the following: linguistic fun, satire, anarchist defiance or provocation, attracting attention of recipients in order to distinguish the meme among massive amounts of information, and the diagnosis of linguistic correctness of specific people or representatives of various social groups (e.g. junior high school students, sports fans, blokers, sports commentators, teachers, elderly women). Moreover, creating negative protagonists of memes by attempting to imitate their language, which consists mostly of repeating their linguistic errors, allowed for the recreation of linguistic awareness of Internet users, e.g. for indicating the most ridiculed types of errors (spelling, phonetic and lexical). The key conclusion from the analysis is the indication of memes exemplifying the alignment with norms as a value, even if its appreciation is preceded by the (apparent) rejection of all rules.

Digitalized Sports Products and Various Generations in the Era of Industry 4.0

In modern times of Industry 4.0, digital solutions are used in an increasing number of branches of the economy, and this also applies to sports. Generational cohorts provide a way to understand how different life experiences affect people’s views of the world. There is a new growing group of sports fans—modern fans—who have been functioning in the digital world since birth, and therefore have their specific behavioral patterns, habits, and expectations. For this reason the sports industry must adapt properly to continue to develop. This article aims to identify how consumers representing various generations on the Polish market consume sports products provided by digitized channels. The study focused on three areas: the source of information about the sport, devices on which consumers watch sports and the evaluation of the attractiveness of sports products (full games, game highlights and behind the scenes). The study was conducted in the form of an online survey in 2021, and 581 Polish volleyball fans took part in it. The results indicate that younger generations are more likely to get sports information from social media and less likely to watch games on TV than older generations.

Sports and boycott: Attitudes among Jewish Israelis

The controversy about the campaign to boycott Israel in general and Israeli sports in particular suffers from the absence of empirical data about the political character of the Israeli sports sphere, as well as the way Jewish Israelis see a possible boycott. Supporters of the boycott hope, among other things, that the campaign is registered among Israelis, and maybe even contribute to political change. Liberal opposition relies on the argument that sports is a beacon of inter-ethnic tolerance that should be cherished rather than targeted. Through a survey with a representative sample of internet users among the adult Jewish citizens of Israel (N = 600), this study provides the following related observations: (1) there is no evidence that Jewish Israeli sports fans are more likely to question the regime of Jewish supremacy than non-fans. (2) Among Jewish Israelis there is a small, but non-negligible minority who justifies the boycott of Israeli sports, and this minority is even larger among people who attend the soccer stadium and/or are politically active. (3) A significant majority of Jewish Israelis (69%) are concerned about a possible boycott of Israel in general, but this majority is less clear among men who are sports fans. The findings question the liberal expectation that Israeli sports serve as a model for inclusive citizenship and at the same time they indicate the potential of sports to amplify existing political tendencies among fans. These observations should be considered in future debates about sanctions and boycotts.

Trial-by-trial fluctuations in amygdala activity track motivational enhancement of desirable sensory evidence during perceptual decision-making

People are biased towards seeing outcomes that they are motivated to see. For example, sports fans of opposing teams often perceive the same ambiguous foul in favor of the team they support. Here, we test the hypothesis that amygdala-dependent allocation of visual attention facilitates motivational biases in perceptual decision-making. Human participants were rewarded for correctly categorizing an ambiguous image into one of two categories while undergoing fMRI. On each trial, we used a financial bonus to motivate participants to see one category over another. The reward maximizing strategy was to perform the categorization task accurately, but participants were biased towards categorizing the images as the category we motivated them to see. Heightened amygdala activity preceded motivation consistent categorizations, and participants with higher amygdala activation exhibited stronger motivational biases in their perceptual reports. Trial-by-trial amygdala activity was associated with stronger enhancement of neural activity encoding desirable percepts in sensory cortices, suggesting that amygdala-dependent effects on perceptual decisions arose from biased sensory processing. Analyses using a drift diffusion model provide converging evidence that trial-by-trial amygdala activity was associated with stronger motivational biases in the accumulation of sensory evidence. Prior work examining biases in perceptual decision-making have focused on the role of frontoparietal regions. Our work highlights an important contribution of the amygdala. When people are motivated to see one outcome over another, the amygdala biases perceptual decisions towards those outcomes.Significance StatementForming accurate perceptions of the environment is essential for adaptive behavior. People however are biased towards seeing what they want to see, giving rise to inaccurate perceptions and erroneous decisions. Here, we combined behavior, modeling, and fMRI to show that the bias towards seeing desirable percepts is related to trial-by-trial fluctuations in amygdala activity. In particular, during moments with higher amygdala activity, sensory processing is biased in favor of desirable percepts, such that participants are more likely to see what they want to see. These findings highlight the role of the amygdala in biasing visual perception, and shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying the influence of motivation and reward on how people decide what they see.

A comparative analysis of sports gambling in the United States

PurposeThe purpose of the study was to explore differences in demographic, self-concept and fan behavior factors that predict sports fans who bet and those who do not in legal and illegal gambling jurisdictions in the United States (US).Design/methodology/approachSeven hundred and eighty-nine sports fans and bettors from 47 states were surveyed through a partnership with a major media provider in the US. A number of demographic items, theoretically defined factors and fan behaviors were measured, and several two-way MANOVAs with interaction effects were conducted to determine differences between those who gamble and those who do not in legal and illegal jurisdictions.FindingsStatistically significant differences between those who bet and those who do not were found. Bettors look different and come from different backgrounds and locations. Psychographically, they were clearly more narcissistic. They also indicated a higher social identity and self-worth, yet perceived themselves as less worthy members of important social institutions. In general, sports bettors out consumed non-bettors as it relates sports spectatorship. In terms of differences between the groups across legal and illegal states, only a few factors were impacted. Self-worth and personal identity were factors that were found to be different between groups and jurisdictions as well as DFS participation.Originality/valueThe US sports gambling market is expected to grow US$6.5 billion in the next five years, yet very little is known, psychographically, about the US sports bettor. Sports gambling research, especially from a marketing perspective, has primarily been limited to Australia and the United Kingdom. This paper contributes to what we know about sports gambling and the emerging US market. In particular, the results uncovered fundamental trait, demographic and behavioral differences between US sports fans and sports bettors. The findings also provide similar foundational differences and similarities between those who bet in states with legal and illegal gambling.

A Magic “Bullet”: Exploring Sport Fan Usage of On-Screen, Ephemeral Posts During Live Stream Sessions

The bullet-screen function is an augmented comment feature that has been adopted by the majority of Over-the-Top (OTT) services to foster users’ interaction and watching experience. This feature empowers sports customers to post and view numerous, short, and fast-moving comments that overlap over the screen while watching live stream sports events in real time. This research aims to investigate how sports fans embrace the bullet-screen feature while watching live stream sports. Through a combination of thematic analyzing bullet-screen comments from a National Basketball Association Finals game, and semi-structured interviews among bullet-screen users ( N = 15), the results indicate that sport fans’ bullet-screen messages could be classified into five categories: critical commentary, socialization, supportive interactions, random messages, and trash talk. Four motives for sports fans to engage with bullet-screen posting were identified: entertainment, gathering information, interaction, and finding belonging. The study also showed that the inappropriateness of comments and too much overlay on the screen could prevent sports fans from utilizing the service. Theoretical and practical implications have also been discussed.

Impact of Team Identification on Fans’ Trust after Negative Incident: Moderating Role of Mass Media

Sports marketing being a new and under researched area is highly dependent on mass media treatment. The purpose of this study is twofold: First to examine the impact of team identification on fans trust after the involvement of a player in a negative incident, and second to examine the impact of media (fans’ perceived content informativeness, content credibility and source credibility of TV cricket talk shows) on this relationship. Data is collected via convenience sampling from a total of 399 respondents belonging to three universities, local markets, and friends from Islamabad and Rawal Pindi twin cities of Pakistan. Simple and moderated multiple regression analysis reveals that team identification positively affects fans’ trust after negative incident. Perceived source credibility, content credibility and informativeness of cricket talk shows on TV (mass media) moderates the relationship of team identification and fans’ trust after negative incident in such a way that the relationship becomes stronger regardless the media is positively or negatively highlighting the negative incident. The results of the current research might help sports marketing and media related organizations to understand sports fans’ behaviors towards sports organizations in connection of the conflict.