Potential Factors That Influence Team Identification: A Desire to be Similar or Different?

The purpose of the current study is to determine whether eliciting the need for assimilation or the need for differentiation influences individuals’ identification with a given team. Team identification is defined as a fan’s psychological connection to a team; that is, the extent to which the fan views the team as an extension of him or herself (Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001). It is important to understand potential factors that may motivate and potentially increase one’s identification with a particular team. The sample consisted of 106 participants attending Western Kentucky University. The participants completed the Sport Fandom Questionnaire (SFQ) and the Need for Affiliation (nAff) scale. Participants were presented with one of three randomly assigned scenarios, and were asked to transcribe two memories, dependent upon the previously assigned scenario. Following this, the gambling scenario was described. Participants rated how identified they were with both the underdog and favored team, regardless of their choice. It was hypothesized that those who are primed to experience the feelings of assimilation will wager more money on and be more highly identified with a team that is a prohibitive favorite. Also, it was hypothesized that those who are primed to experience the feelings of differentiation will wager more money on and be more highly identified with a team that is a large underdog. Results indicated that the hypotheses were not supported; however, significance was approached, as participants who were primed for feelings of differentiation tended to choose the underdog football team. Regardless of condition, participants tended to wager more money on the favorite football team, as opposed to the underdog football team.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Psychology

Year

2010

Author dc:creator

• Clippert, Courtney A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Frederick G. Grieve (Director), Dr. Sarah Ostrowski, Dr. W. Pitt Derryberry

• sports betting
• sports spectators
• sports social aspects
• Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• Personality and Social Contexts
• Psychology
• Social Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/148

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wku.edu:theses-1149