142
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
Off-Field Behavior of Athletes and Team
Identification: Using Social Identity Theory
and Balance Theory to Explain
Fan Reactions
Janet S. Fink
University of Connecticut
Heidi M. Parker
Syracuse University
Martin Brett
DeSales University
Julie Higgins
Mount St. Mary’s University
In the current article, we extend the literature on fan identication and social identity
theory by examining the effects of unscrupulous off-eld behaviors of athletes. In
doing so, we drew from both social identity theory and Heider’s balance theory to
hypothesize a signicant interaction between fan identication level and leadership
response on fans’ subsequent levels of identication. An experimental study was per-
formed and a 2 (high, low identication) 2 (weak, strong leadership response)
ANOVA was conducted with the pre to post difference score in team identication as
the dependent variable. There was a signicant interaction effect (F
(2, 80)
= 23.71, p <
.001) which explained 23% of the variance in the difference between prepost test
scores. The results provide evidence that unscrupulous acts by athletes off the eld of
play can impact levels of team identication, particularly for highly identied fans
exposed to a weak leadership response. The results are discussed relative to appropri-
ate theory. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are also for-
warded.
Team identication has captured the attention of sport researchers for a
number of years and relative to a variety of topics. Research regarding team iden-
tication has uncovered a variety of cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes
(Boyle & Magnusson, 2007; Kwon, Trail, & Anderson, 2005; Trail, Fink, &
Anderson, 2000; Wann & Grieve, 2005). Research has shown fans with high levels
Fink is with the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269. Parker is with Syracuse University,
Syracuse, NY 13244. Brett is with DeSales University, Center Valley, PA 18034. Higgins is with
Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmittsburg, MD 21727.
MARKETING
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
Athlete Behavior and Team Identification 143
of team identication are more likely to attend games, pay more for tickets, buy
team sponsors’ products, and purchase more team merchandise (Madrigal, 1995;
Wakeeld, 1995; Wann & Branscombe, 1993). Wann and Branscombe (1993)
reported that fans higher in identication had higher expectations for team perfor-
mance while Madrigal (1995) found that fans higher in identication derived
more satisfaction from positive game outcomes. Perhaps most importantly, fans
high in identication are more likely to stay loyal to the team even when it is per-
forming poorly while less identied fans tend to engage in self-distancing tactics
(Wann & Branscombe, 1993).
Most of these studies, however, have dealt with fans’ reactions to on-eld
occurrences, that is, the play of the team. How athletes’ off-eld behavior impacts
fan identication is an under-studied area. At any given time of the year, allega-
tions of unscrupulous off-eld offenses by athletes are quite common. A recent
sampling includes professional baseball players accused of and admitting to ste-
roid use (Fainaru-Wada & Williams, 2003; Fox News, 2004); a professional foot-
ball team with nine players arrested in nine months (USA Today, 2007); and col-
lege football players accepting money from boosters (Dodd, 2006). These are just
a few examples which demonstrate that athletes are not immune from scandalous
acts. Thus, the question is posed, does this unscrupulous behavior impact fans’
identication with the team?
In the current article, we extend the literature on fan identication and social
identity theory by examining the effects of unscrupulous off-eld behaviors of
athletes. In doing so, we draw from both social identity theory and Heider’s bal-
ance theory to propose a specic hypothesis. We then test this hypothesis via an
experimental manipulation. Below we present the theoretical background sup-
porting the study’s hypothesis.
Conceptual Background and Hypothesis
Social Identity and Team Identification
Team identication stems from social identity theory. Social identity theory sug-
gests that individuals have both a personal identity and a social identity (Tajfel &
Turner, 1986). While the personal identity consists of distinctive attributes, such
as abilities and interests, social identity consists of signicant group categories
that can be based on demographic classications (e.g., sex, race) or organizational
membership (e.g., religious, educational, social institutions; Turner, 1982). When
a person identies with an organization, he or she observes, “a oneness with or
belongingness to the organization, where the individual denes him or herself in
terms of the organization(s) of which he or she is a member” (Mael & Ashforth,
1992, p. 104). Individuals are more likely to become identied with an organiza-
tion (or team) when it represents the attributes they assign to their own self-
concepts.
Social identity theory suggests that individuals are driven by a need for high
self-esteem and this self-esteem is established, in part, by being members of social
groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). People in groups make social comparisons in an
effort to enhance their self-esteem; they have favorable attitudes toward their own
group (in-group) and categorize other groups (outgroups) as inferior (Hogg &
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
144 Fink et al.
Abrams, 1999). Certainly this is true of sports fans. Highly identied fans are
more likely to show favoritism toward other fans of their team and criticize fans
of opposing teams (Branscombe & Wann, 1994; Wann & Branscombe, 1995;
Wann & Grieve, 2005). They see “their” team as an extension of themselves
(Wann, Melnkick, Russell, & Pease, 2001).
When presented with any sort of negative information regarding the group,
highly identied group members react differently than those with lower levels of
identication (Cohen & Garcia, 2005; Ellemers, Spears, & Doosje, 2002). Highly
identied members typically reafrm their group membership, while those with
lower levels of identication tend to distance themselves (Cohen & Garcia, 2005).
Such behaviors are apparent in sport fans. Wann and Branscombe (1990) found
that highly identied fans are less likely to distance themselves from the team
when the team lost than those who were less identied. Further, highly identied
fans exhibit biased attribution processing favoring their team (Wann & Dolan,
1994). That is, facing a win, highly identied fans ascribe the victory to internal
factors such as the skill of the team, or the coaching, and sometimes even fan sup-
port. However, upon a loss, rather than conceding another team’s superiority, they
blame the loss on more external factors such as fate or poor refereeing. Thus,
highly identied sports fans seem to undergo some sort of biased attributional
processes when dealing with a loss.
Team Identification and the Effects of Off-field Behavior:
In Group Bias and the Black Sheep Effect
However, losing on the eld of play is a natural aspect of sport. One team must
win, and one must lose. While not pleasant, sport fans must accept the fact that
sometimes their teams will lose. An athlete engaging in an unscrupulous act is
entirely different. These acts are not natural consequences of competition. Thus,
when a member of a team (i.e., an in-group member) engages in some sort of
immoral behavior, the fan must reconcile the positive feelings about the team with
the poor behavior of the athlete. This reconciliation may be different than when
facing a team loss. Dietz-Uhler, End, Demakakos, Dickirson, and Grantz (2002)
suggested that fans could react to these unscrupulous athletes in one of two ways,
either by exhibiting an in-group bias effect, or by exhibiting the “black sheep”
effect.
An in-group bias effect refers to the fact that group members often maintain
allegiance to the group, even when provided information that a group member has
failed (Dietz-Uhler, 1999). The failure of a group member is a threat to the group’s
identity, however, groups have numerous coping methods for reconciling the
action of the player with their views of the group. For example, fans might ques-
tion or degrade the reliability of the unattering information (e.g., the media is
“picking on” our team, the witnesses are not believable; Branscombe & Wann,
1994; Deitz-Uhler, 1999). They may accredit the “failure” to situational causes
(e.g., the athlete was in the wrong place at the wrong time) or engage in biased
attributions of the situation to put the group into a more positive light (e.g., the
athlete did not mean to do it, the athlete was merely protecting himself/herself;
Dietz-Uhler & Murrell, 1998; Wann & Dolan, 1994). The salient feature of these
coping mechanisms is sustained support for the group member committing the
unscrupulous act.
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
Athlete Behavior and Team Identification 145
On the other hand, the “black sheep” effect occurs when group members
derogate the guilty in-group member (athlete), and label him/her as “different”
than the rest of the group (Marques, Yzerbyt, & Leyens, 1988). This allows the
group members to maintain positive feelings about the group even in the wake of
an unscrupulous action of a group member because they no longer consider the
black sheep as representative of their group. Rather than supporting the guilty in-
group member, fans distance themselves from that particular member.
Dietz-Uhler et al. (2002) tested fans’ reactions to law breaking athletes who
were either a part of fans’ favorite teams, or a part of another team. Instead of
discovering a “black sheep” effect, they found an in-group bias effect in that par-
ticipants evaluated the law-breaking athlete from their favorite team more highly
than the athlete from a rival team, even when the rival athlete had not engaged in
criminal behavior. However, the study did not measure team identication, thus
the effects of identication on these reactions could not be ascertained. As the
authors noted (2002, p. 168), “the possibility exists that these subjects were not
highly identied with their favorite football team.” Certainly one can have a favor-
ite team, yet not be highly identied. Further, their study focused on participants’
attitudes toward the law-breaking athlete, while the current study focuses on atti-
tudes toward the team when an athlete on the team engages in an unscrupulous
act.
When examining feelings about the team in the wake of an unscrupulous act
by a player, either the in-group bias response, or the “black sheep” effect should
allow the fan to maintain their allegiance to the team. Either of these two broad
mechanisms can allow fans to feel good about their team when faced with the
negative information regarding a particular player. Whether the fan throws greater
support behind the player (in-group bias), or creates distance from the player
through derogation tactics (“black sheep” effect), such responses serve to allow
for reconciliation between the unscrupulous act of a group member, and the posi-
tive feelings about the group. However, identication with the group plays a key
role. Highly identied group members are much more likely to exhibit coping
reactions when their group is threatened (Branscombe & Wann, 1994, Branscombe,
Wann, Noel, & Coleman, 1993). Because highly identied fans see the team as a
reection of themselves, they will experience a greater need to reconcile the act
through some sort of coping mechanism.
Leadership Response: The Effect of Balance Theory on Fans’
Responses
In addition, the response of team leaders should impact fans’ responses to an off-
eld incident. Balance theory purports that individuals strive to maintain a sense
of balance in their lives (Heider, 1958). They attempt to reach “a harmonious
state, one in which the entities comprising the situation and the feelings about
them t together without stress” (Heider, 1958, p. 180). An individual’s need to
reconcile feelings toward the immoral player behavior with his/her feelings toward
the group as a whole leads to this imbalanced state, with positive feelings regard-
ing the team, yet negative feelings regarding a team member. Therefore, some-
thing must be done to “balance” the situation. Left to their own devices, fans
could engage in one of many balancing techniques (e.g., distancing oneself from
the team, derogating the in-group member, exhibiting in-group bias) depending
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
146 Fink et al.
upon their level of identication. However, different leadership responses to the
unscrupulous act should present different reactions.
A rm and swift response from the head coach, athletic director, or owner
(i.e., management) should allow for greater “balance” in the participant’s mind.
That is, if the participant feels that team leaders are also affronted by the incident,
and a “punishment” that ts the incident is levied, he/she might feel better about
the team as a whole because the unscrupulous player can be seen as an anomaly
and somehow “different” from the rest of the team. This response, in fact, could
activate the “black sheep” effect. Group members can still feel good about their
team, because their team still espouses the values they hold dear—the coach
makes it clear the action by the athlete is not representative of the group.
However, would fans’ attitudes differ if team leaders knew about the impro-
priety and did nothing about it, or attempted to “protect” the unscrupulous ath-
lete? If the team’s response is such, there is no longer a black sheep to blame.
With leadership failing to denounce the act, suddenly the whole team can be
viewed in an undesirable light. Then, it becomes quite difcult for a person con-
nected with the team to maintain a balance. Given this response, fans may feel that
the team (group) itself no longer espouses the values that they hold dear, and the
team is less of a reection of their personal identities. Thus, he/she may begin to
disidentify with the team.
Considering social identity theory and the balance theory in tandem, one
would expect that an individual with stronger ties to an organization would have a
greater need to obtain “balance” when something negative occurs within the orga-
nization. Indeed, Dietz-Uhler (1999) found that highly identied group members
were more likely to engage in biased processing of negative group information to
maintain a more positive social identity. Because the highly identied individual
expresses a “oneness” with the organization, he/she especially will need some-
thing positive to counteract the negative situation. Highly identied fans should
feel more compelled to seek out positive information to counteract the negative.
Doosje, Branscombe, Spears, and Manstead (1998) noted that when presented
with both negative and positive information about a group, highly identied mem-
bers placed more emphasis on the positive information to maintain a favorable
feeling about their connectedness to a group. Thus, highly identied fans should
be more inuenced by leadership’s response to a negative situation than those less
identied—that is, they, especially, will look for something positive to maintain
the balance of being connected to the group which they love when faced with
unscrupulous actions of a group member (i.e., player). If these highly identied
fans perceive that team leaders do not condone the action, these fans may have
negative feelings about the individual athlete, but their feelings about the team
should remain positive.
The above background literature leads to the hypothesis of this study.
H1: There will be a signicant interaction between fan identication level
and leadership response on fans’ subsequent levels of identication. When
highly identied fans are faced with information regarding an unscrupulous
act by a team player, their team identication will change as a function of
leadership’s response to the situation.
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
Athlete Behavior and Team Identification 147
Method
Procedures and Participants
We incorporated a 2 (high vs. low identication) 2 (strong vs. weak leadership
response) analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test the hypothesis. Participants’
change in team identication scores (pre–post) served as the dependent variable.
First, participants were pretested on their initial levels of fan identication
which was used to create high and low identied groups. Two weeks later, partici-
pants received one of two newspaper story manipulations creating four groups:
high fan identication-strong leadership response (n = 23); high fan identica-
tion-weak leadership response (n = 20); low fan identication-strong leadership
response (n = 20); and low fan identication-weak leadership response (n = 19).
Manipulation
Copies of a life-like newspaper article were designed for the study. The “article”
was constructed to look exactly like one taken from the local newspaper’s web-
page. It had the newspaper’s insignia, a current sportswriter’s byline, and the
“breaking news” headlines aspect found in the actual newspaper Web page.
The newspaper story described the university’s star quarterback charged with
serious off-eld offenses, drunk and disorderly conduct and assault and battery. In
the “strong leadership response” manipulation, the coach and athletic director
responded to the charges quickly, expressed severe disappointment in the behav-
ior of the athlete, indicated the behavior was not consistent with their expectations
for team member behavior, and immediately suspended the player from the team.
In the “weak leadership response” manipulation, the coach and athletic director
were slow to respond to the charges, indicated that the pending offenses were a
“team matter” and would be dealt with internally, and punishment, if given, would
be administered after all the facts had been gathered.
Study participants were undergraduate students who were enrolled in human-
ities classes (N = 88) at a Midwestern university. Humanities classes were used to
obtain more variability in team identication. The study was conducted during
class time and participation was voluntary. Participants were given a brief intro-
duction of the study by the experimenters, in which they were told that they were
being used as part of a sport marketing study. All students were told to put a code
name on their survey and were rst pretested on the fan identication scale. The
experimenters used the pretest scores to group subjects into high (M = 5.93) or
low (M = 2.99) identication categories using a conceptual split. Because 4 was
the midpoint on the scale, those below a 4.00 were considered “low” while those
5.00 or above were considered “high.” This resulted in the loss of six original
subjects. Results of an independent sample t test indicated that the group means
were signicantly different (t
(1, 81)
= 1.76, p < .001) for the high and low groups.
Using the code names, participants were randomly assigned to the strong/weak
manipulations, ensuring near equal numbers of the manipulations between the
high/low participants.
Three weeks later, the experimenters handed out the materials (the one-page
newspaper article and the subsequent page with manipulation check and posttest
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
148 Fink et al.
measure) using the code names. Participants were told that they were being tested
that day due to the breaking news that was contained in the newspaper article.
Participants had two minutes read the article. They then completed the post test
team identication measure and, after that, the manipulation check measure. After
all participants had completed the materials, the class was debriefed and told that
the newspaper story was made up and the content was not true.
Measures
The mean of the items represented the nal score for each measure. Reliability
estimates (Cronbach’s alpha) were calculated for each measure and are reported
below.
Fan identication was tested using Trail and James’ (2001) 3-item Team
Identication Index (TII) which utilizes a 7-point Likert scale. An example item
is: “I consider myself a big fan of the ________________”(university team mascot
name). Individual items were totaled and divided by the number of items to obtain
a mean score. The reliability estimate was high ( = .87).
Leadership response was measured to ensure that the manipulation was suc-
cessful. Three items made up the scale and were preceded by the phrase, “the
athletic department’s response to this situation was . . .” and anchored by 7-point
semantic differential scales. The endpoints were “weak-strong,” “lenient-strict”
and “moderate-rm.” Individual items were totaled and divided by the number of
items to obtain a mean score. The reliability estimate for the measure was high (
= .91)
Analyses
A 2 (high vs. low identication) 2 (strong vs. weak leadership response) analy-
sis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypothesis. Participant’s change in
identication scores on the team identication measure (pre–post) served as the
dependent variable.
Results
Manipulation Check
To ensure that the manipulation was successful, an independent sample t test was
performed. The means of the two conditions within the manipulation (i.e., strong
versus weak leadership response) were signicantly different, t
(1,81)
= 7.38, p <
.001. The mean for the “weak leadership response” condition was 1.7 (SD = .81)
while the mean for the “strong leadership response” condition was 5.3 (SD = 1.4).
Thus, the manipulation was successful.
Hypothesis Testing
To test the hypothesis, a difference score was calculated by taking a subject’s
pretest mean score and subtracting it from the subject’s posttest mean score on the
team identication scale. Then a 2 (high, low identication) 2 (weak, strong
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
Athlete Behavior and Team Identification 149
leadership response) ANOVA was conducted with the difference score as the
dependent variable. There was a signicant interaction effect (F
(2, 80)
= 23.71, p <
.001) which explained 23% of the variance in the difference between prepost test
scores. As Figure 1 and Table 1 indicate, fans low in team identication showed
very little difference in their pre and post test scores as a result of the manipulation
regardless of the managerial response. However, in the high identication group,
those exposed to the weak leadership response showed a signicant decrease in
their identication scores (mean difference score = –.76) while scores for those
exposed to the strong leadership response remained relatively stable (mean differ-
ence score = .07). Further, a one sample t test against zero indicated that the
decrease in identication scores for this group was signicant (t = 9.89, p < .001)
while the changes in the other groups were not signicantly different from zero.
Discussion
The results of this study provide evidence that unscrupulous acts by athletes off
the eld of play can impact levels of team identication. This was particularly true
for highly identied fans exposed to the “weak leadership response.” The ANOVA
revealed that those fans, compared with the others, experienced a decrease in their
fan identication scores. This supports the notion that social identity theory can
work in tandem with the balance theory. People who are highly identied fans
have a greater need to achieve balance when presented with an in-group member
(athlete) who commits an unscrupulous act. When team leaders actually support
that athlete, it appears that the fan has nothing “positive” to attach him or herself
to–thus, their fan identication scores drop. However, when team leaders pro-
vided a strong response, one that clearly denoted the athlete’s actions were out of
line with team expectations for behavior, it provided something positive for the
highly identied fan to attach to in the wake of outsiders’ negative commentary
regarding the situation. Thus, the “threat” to the team’s social status was miti-
gated. Most likely this was the result of a “black sheep” effect. Highly identied
subjects in the “strong leadership response group” could more easily consider the
athlete on their team as an anomaly, acting inconsistently with the team (group)
values with which the fan feels a connection. This is, in fact, consistent with
others’ work. Branscombe et al. (1993) showed that the most highly identied
group members responded most negatively to in-group members who failed to
live up to the positive group image. If the highest identiers automatically have a
tendency to engage in the black sheep coping mechanism, that mechanism could
certainly be enhanced with the “strong leadership response.”
Social groups structure a foundation for identity and the concepts of our per-
sonal identities intersect with our social group memberships (Tajfel & Turner,
1986). Therefore, it is not surprising that the behavior of in-group members was
germane to subjects’ team identity scores. Recent work in social psychology has
elucidated the concept of “vicarious shame” (Lickel, Schmader, Curtis, Scarnier,
& Ames, 2005). This work has shown that people can feel ashamed of a negative
event, even if they are not personally responsible for it. Just as fans can experience
vicarious achievement with a successful other even though they personally con-
tributed nothing to the victory (Cialdini, Borden, Thorne, Walker, Freeman, &
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
150
Figure 1 — Graph of interaction effect: pretest, posttest difference scores.
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
Athlete Behavior and Team Identification 151
Sloan, 1976), it seems that people are capable of experiencing shame even if they
had nothing to do with the wrongdoing (Johns, Schmader, & Lickel, 2005). How-
ever, this vicarious shame is predicated on identication with the group. As Lickel
et al. (2005, p. 148) stated:
Because perceptions of a shared social identity are a source of self-identi-
cation and esteem, people are invested in maintaining a positive reputation of
their social identities and are loath to have negative stereotypes about their
groups conrmed.
When faced with a negative action by an ingroup member, Lickel et al. (2005)
found that people felt vicarious shame when they had a strong shared social iden-
tity with the wrongdoer, and thus felt that this negative event would somehow
reect badly on them personally. In addition, they found that this sense of shame
led people to distance themselves from the wrongdoer and the event.
Though we did not directly measure shame, it is plausible that because of
highly identied fans’ strong connections with the team, they felt vicarious shame
for the athlete’s wrongdoing. Indeed, a quick perusal of recent sport incidents in
which players have engaged in unscrupulous acts hint at these feelings. For exam-
ple, after the eighth athlete from the Cincinnati Bengal was arrested in 2006,
coach Marvin Lewis said, “It’s an embarrassment to our organization, to our city,
and to our fans” (Maske & Carpenter, 2006). A blogger was even more insistent.
He wrote:
I am utterly ashamed and appalled to be a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals. I
have spent the last 17 years of my life as a fan of the Bengals, not much by
most people’s standards, but quite a lot considering I’m only 22 years old. . .
. Until I see changes in the drafting and team-building policies of the Cincin-
nati Bengals franchise, I will no longer be a fan. I can tolerate losing with
dignity, and certainly winning with class, but I cannot handle winning with
criminals. Until further notice, I will no longer be wearing my orange and
black. (Brown, 2006)
An NBA enthusiast had this to say following the ugly brawl that occurred
between fans and players in the Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers game:
Being a sports fan carries with it the potential for both immense joy and dis-
appointment. There’s the thrill of watching the players you emulate succeed
against bitter rivals. There’s the dejection that accompanies painful losses.
Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations: Difference Scores
High-Low Id Group Managerial Response Group M SD N
Low id weak –.7016 .56641 19
strong –.9333 .70636 20
High id weak –.7668 .34331 20
strong .0729 .28321 23
Dependent variable: Difference scores
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
152 Fink et al.
And this week I have just discovered a third emotion—shame. Not shame at
outcomes, but shame at the way the team I support and the fans I identify with
act on the eld. (Mata-Fink, 2004)
Thus, it does appear that some fans are capable of feeling vicarious shame
when a team member is caught committing an immoral act.
Implications, Future Directions, and Limitations
The results of this study suggest that unscrupulous acts by athletes can affect
highly identied fans’ level of identication with the team. Further, the response
by team leaders appears to be vital in mitigating those effects. The implication is
clear. Team leaders (e.g., coaches, athletic directors, management) must carefully
plan their response to unscrupulous off-eld acts. When an athlete has clearly
engaged in a devious act, team leaders should denounce the act as inconsistent
with the team’s expectations for behavior as this appears to lessen the negative
impact of the act. Failure to respond in such a manner could serve to dispirit the
general public as well as their core base of highly identied fans.
Future research should attempt to measure the longitudinal effects of such
dubious acts. A limitation of this study is that posttest measures of fan identica-
tion were collected immediately after subjects read the mock newspaper article. It
is plausible that fans experience an immediate reaction that subsides after time.
This is a particularly important point given the fact that most studies on identica-
tion show it to be a relatively stable trait, especially for those who are highly
identied (Cialdini et al., 1976; Wann & Branscombe, 1990).
The experimental nature of the study prohibited such longitudinal measure-
ment as subjects had to be deceived into thinking the mock newspaper article was
genuine, then debriefed regarding the true nature of the study upon completion of
the post test measure. Had subjects been given another post test measure some
time later, they would have known the story regarding the athlete was not true.
Similarly, future studies should assess the impact of a series of off-eld inci-
dents by athletes on the same team. For example, perhaps the Bengal’s fan quoted
above did not feel such shame after the rst incident, but reached that point after
a certain number of incidents. It may be easier to explain away one dubious act,
but much more difcult to feel a sense of connection with the team when such acts
occur frequently. Further, future studies should attempt to measure vicarious
shame to concretely determine whether fans feel such emotions in the aftermath
of such events.
Future studies should also assess reactions of fans of different teams. Some
teams have historically embraced and espoused a rogue image (e.g., Miami Hur-
ricanes, Oakland Raiders). Highly identied fans of these types of teams may
connect to the team because of such qualities. If so, they would be much less
likely to distance themselves from the team (or the athlete) in the wake of scandal-
ous behavior.
In addition, future studies should incorporate fans’ point of attachment.
Recent research has shown that the object of a fan’s identication can stem from
numerous aspects: the team itself, particular players, the coach, the organization,
and even the community in which the organization plays (Kwon, Trail, &
Journal of Sport Management, 2009, 23, 142-155
© 2009 Human Kinetics, Inc.
Athlete Behavior and Team Identification 153
Anderson, 2005; Trail, Robinson, Dick, & Gillentine, 2003). Results may differ if
the fan’s point of attachment is high for the particular player that causes the trouble
and relatively low, in comparison, to the team itself. If a fan’s attachment is solely
to a player, it stands to reason that he/she will not view the organization or its
leaders as part of the “in-group.” Subsequently, fans may react differently relative
to the object of their attachment.
In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that sport fans are not immune
to the unscrupulous off-eld acts of athletes. In fact, such acts have a negative
impact on team identication levels, particularly when the response by team lead-
ers was perceived to be weak and lenient. This is especially true for those with the
highest levels of team identication. Further, the results suggest that aspects of
social identity theory and the balance theory are inuential in predicting and
explaining fan response to such events.
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