Greg Tyler
Bray
UNIV 200
10/31/2013
The Relationship Between Sports Fanship and Social Psychological Well-Being As a lifelong sports fan, I’ve experienced just about all of the emotional highs and lows that go with it, from my football team winning the Super Bowl twice, to my favorite baseball team going through 14 consecutive losing seasons. People love sports no matter how good or bad their favorite teams may be and they have become a large part of many people’s lives. And like many sports fans, my day to day mood can be greatly affected by how my favorite teams performed the previous night. Being a sports fan has positive benefits for your psychological and social well-being. In order to fully understand how being a sports fan can affect your life, we must first fully understand the different aspects of fanship. First the basics, fan. Walter Gantz, et al. define a fan as “a keen and regular spectator of a (professional) sport, originally of baseball,” but the term can also pertain to athletes and teams themselves (Gantz 96). Next is team identification. Team identification is defined as the extent to which an individual feels a psychological connection with a team and to passionate fans it is “‘a central component of their self-identity’” (Vallerand 1281). The relationship between team identification and well-being is the main topic of research for many psychologists and has shown to be a positive relationship. Being a sports fan provides countless possibilities for social interactions and be very socially healthy (Kirchheimer 42). Daniel Wann, Ph.D., a professor at Murray State University, whose research program centers around the psychology of sport fandom, writes, “In general, these approaches to human well-being suggest that feelings of identification with valued social organizations and groups assist in the development of a social network that provides psychological support and, consequently, result in a more mentally healthy individual” and that “A number of sport scientists have suggested that, because of the social nature of the activity, sport fandom is likely related to psychological well-being” (273). Further research conducted by Wann shows that fans who consider themselves highly identified with a team actually gain substantial psychological benefits just from their connection with a team. However, a person does not gain the psychological benefits of team identification solely from identifying with a team, but actually because identifying with a team leads to connections with different people. This occurs because being identified with a team allows for sharing and bonding with other fans by discussing the team or other aspects of the game. This effect is also greater if someone is a fan of a local sports team versus a nonlocal team. Wann discusses the effects of identifying with a local sports team, “In environments such as this, fans of a local team can feel part of something grander than the self. They gain vital connections to others in their community and a feeling of camaraderie” (276). Consequently, these fans receive great psychological benefits to go along with their feeling of belongingness. Wann also notes that recent research has verified this claim and that fans who are more highly identified with a local sports team, compared to fans which are less identified, showed higher levels of social confidence and social well-being.(“Understanding the Positive Social Psychological Benefits” 272-273). Wann’s research shows that simply being a sports fan can increase a person’s psychological well-being through the social connections that come with it and it is very socially healthy to be identified with a sports team. Whether you attend a game, go to a bar to watch, or simply converse with coworkers or peers about how bad that call by the ref was in last night’s game, sports can be used to connect people to each other through interactions and rituals. Marci Cottingham, a professor at the University of Akron the in the field of psychology, used interaction ritual (IR) theory to examine and study sports fan’s interactions. Interaction ritual theory theorizes emotion as being socially emergent, where people’s emotions tend to come out when in social settings. Cottingham observed fans of the NFL Team the Pittsburgh Steelers, to see how interaction rituals brought out emotions of the fans. Cottingham observed fans at a Pittsburgh Steelers game, in the adjacent parking lot to the stadium, and two sports bars in Pittsburgh on a game day. She observed fans sharing their emotional experiences with other fans by various chants and gestures, including clapping, cheering, high-fives. One specific situation she observed seems to sum up how fans’ interactions increase group solidarity and individual emotional experiences:
Late in the final quarter of the game the Steelers made a spectacular play, which resulted in much cheering, screaming, clapping, and waving. A man with a stern face in front of me, probably in his late twenties to early thirties, began to remove layers of clothing. Finally, he pulled his final shirt up over his head and stood cheering and screaming without a shirt in temperatures around 15 degrees Fahrenheit. After a second stellar play on behalf of the Steelers, the man beside him also took off his many layers of coats and shirts and the two clutched hands and screamed in earnest. (174)
Actions such as these are known as active participation, when fans partake in various activities that the entire group is part of. The level of emotional energy that each individual fan demonstrates in their active participation has on effect on the solidarity of the group and can increase their emotional experience. Even after the game that Cottingham attended ended, she observed fans sharing smiles and high-fives walking out of the stadium on their way home after a win. Even these less organized rituals contribute to the solidarity that an individual feels as part of the group (Cottingham 170-174). The feeling from the group solidarity of a sports game is a unique one. Interacting with thousands of other fans to perform various rituals, such as chants or songs, gives you huge feelings of belongingness and camaraderie.
While the benefits of sports fandom are clear, there are still other affects that cannot be ignored. Robert J. Vallerand, a professor at the University of Quebec with a Ph.D. in experimental social psychology, and his colleagues conducted a study to determine how different levels of a fan’s passion could affect his/her well-being and other aspects of their life. Vallerand defines two distinct levels of passion, harmonious and obsessive. Harmonious passion describes the average fan, who loves their team, but does not prioritize it over all other parts of their life. Fan’s with a harmonious passion live their lives in “harmony” with sports fandom. Contrary to harmonious passion, obsessive passion is when a fan becomes too highly identified with a team and it overtakes their social life. Obsessive passion occurs when a fan has either an inside or outside force pressuring the individual to engage in the activity. Fans with an obsessive passion tend to be very egocentric and self-involved and develop a rigid and compulsive personality (1280). When a fan becomes excessively identified with a team or sport, it consumes their social life and personality. Obsessive fans can show addiction-like-symptoms and have their lives become overwhelmed by their fandom.
Vallerand questioned 165 people from English football games, most of who were between the ages of 18 and 42 years old. The study found that fans with obsessive passion were far more likely to participate in maladaptive activities, such as missing work or important family events. Obsessive fans are also more likely to be unable to concentrate during a day their team plays and suffer a larger emotional loss if their team were to lose. The study also notes that obsessive fans do not receive the positive benefits of being a sports fan, as their passion takes over other aspects of their life (1282-1284). The study confirms what Vallerand originally theorized and predicted about obsessive fans. It shows how fans obsession can hurt their work, home, and social lives as they participate in negative behaviors. Obsessive fans also have lower emotional valleys when their team loses. When a fan’s identification becomes his/her life, the maladaptive actions and behaviors result in the fan not obtaining any of the positive benefits of team identification and fandom.
In another study conducted by Vallerand, participants were recruited from local bars on the day of the 2006 World Cup final. Testing occurred 2 hours before the game in the hopes that it would reduce the likelihood of any participants being drunk, which shows that Vallerand does not know much about sport fans culture and tailgating. This study focused on emotions experienced by the fans during the game. It showed that obsessive fans experience less happiness and enthusiasm, but experienced more feelings of pride and hate. Vallerand also notes that obsessive fans were more likely to mock fans of the losing team (1279-1286). The findings of this study show that not only do obsessive fans not reap the benefits of the happiness and enthusiasm from the game, but have stronger feelings of hate toward outgroup members. Although obsessive fans have stronger feelings of pride, this alone does not compensate for the negative consequences of extreme team identification.
Daniel Wann and his associate, Jesse Courtney, agree with Vallerand when they studied the relationship between sport Fan dysfunction and bullying behaviors. They compare dysfunctional sports fans to bullies in that they both “both persons have a tendency to be aggressive, may lack self-control, and have positive attitudes toward violent actions” (Courtney 192). Their research found that fans that have higher team identification are more likely to believe that verbal fan aggression is appropriate. Wann and Courtney further discuss the effects of dysfunctional fans on the experience of the fans around them, saying that maladaptive actions may lead to an unfavorable experience for the fans around them, decreasing the group solidarity and individual emotional experience (191-195). Having sport fandom overtake your life can become an issue and have large detrimental effects on your psychological and social well-being.
Although Wann’s study showed that being a highly identified sports fan can have negative effects on your life, Wann theorizes that rather than the increased aggression of sports fans stemming from fandom itself, it is actually due to the setting that the fans are in. He tested this theory and found it to be true (“Relationship Between Identification With” 1296). Wann and Courtney furthered their previous research and found that, “dysfunction was a significant predictor of the perception of the appropriateness of verbal aggression, but team identification was not” (Courtney 192). Although this does not mean that sports fans do not have more aggressive tendencies, but it denounces the claim that team identification causes higher aggression in sports fans. Vallerand’s studies also showed that while obsessive sports fans that become dysfunctional may cause negative effects for themselves and other fans too, the amount of obsessive fans is far outweighed by fans that are not (1283). This evidence shows that while not only sports fans.
Daniel Wann and his colleague, Stephen Weaver, further researched the relationship between sport team identification and different dimensions of social well-being. They categorized social well-being into five different sections: “social integration, social acceptance, social contribution, social actualization, and social coherence” (Wann, Weaver 220). Wann and Weaver conducted a study to determine how team identification can affect the different sections of social well-being. Wann and Weaver gave 204 college students, with the average age of 21.74 years, questionnaires which students filled out. The study confirmed earlier research by Wann, discussing that identifying with a distant team does not relate to an increase in a fan’s social well-being. This is because identifying with a distant team prevents a fan from gaining the social connections that come with identifying with a local sport team. The study also confirms that identifying with a local team increases your social connections, which is a positive predictor of social well-being (226). This just confirms Wann’s earlier observations of team identification to help build the case he presents.
The study then examined how team identification affected the different dimensions of social well-being. Surprisingly, the study found that sport team identification only predicted social well-being on two of the five dimensions of social well-being: social integration and social coherence and that identification does not predict social acceptance, social contribution, and social actualization. These findings were particularly unexpected, especially due to past research showing a significant relationship between team identification and social well-being. Wann theorizes that, “Perhaps identification is simply related to the trust component of social acceptance and not the other aspects of this construct (e.g., perceptions of kindness)” and that future research is necessary in order to confirm this (Wann 226).
Even though team identification was not found to be predictor of three of the five dimensions of social well-being, there is a significant relationship between team identification and the other two dimensions. The concept of social integration involves a fan’s connection to the community as a whole. This discovery is consistent with the conclusions come by numerous authors who have also argued that sport fandom cam lead to increase in social connections. Wann reasons that the significant relationship between social coherence and identification makes sense as well, saying that, “social coherence involves perceptions that a person’s social world is predictable and understandable and is analogous to meaningfulness in life. Given that past research has found significant relationships between team identification and satisfaction with one’s social life it seems logical that identification would also be correlated with perceptions of coherence. Apparently, highly identified fans tend to view their social lives as satisfactory and meaningful” (227). Wann concludes that while this data supports previous claims by him and other authors, more research must be conducted in order to fully understand the relationship between team identification and social well-being (Wann 227).
In today’s society, sports play a major part of many peoples everyday life and it is important to know how being a sports fan affects your psychological and social well-being. Research conducted by Daniel Wann, Ph.D., a leading researcher of sport fan psychology, has showed that identifying with a sports team has positive benefits towards your social and psychological well-being. Marci Cottingham observed fans of the NFL Team the Pittsburgh Steelers in order to see how interaction rituals such as chants and cheers affect a fans individual emotional experience and group solidarity. She found that performing successful interaction rituals do in fact increase a fans emotional experience and group solidarity, which in turn increases the fans social health and well-being. Although Robert Vallerand et al. presents a valid argument saying that fans who become excessively identified with a team develop negative behaviors as their fandom consumes their lives, research by Wann has shown that there is no negative correlation between team identification and well-being. So while Vallerand’s argument does stand, there are no negative psychological or social effects from being an average sports fan.

Works Cited
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