Sports Fan Identity

There were many new terms introduced in the readings provided for Team A, Case Study #1. The first article “The Social Psychology of the Creation of a Sports Fan Identity: A Theoretical Review of the Literature” stated that current sport literature does not often address the means by which a fan is created and their identities. The article states that fan identity is beneficial to the individual as it helps in providing the person a sense of community and belonging, including “the development of diverse interests, the minimal skill level necessary for participation, and the low cost.” (Jacobson, pg 2) Two key terms that were introduced in the first article were: Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory. Identity theory says that people behave in a way that is consistent with

There are nine core motives for sport consumption: achievement, acquisition, aesthetics, drama/eustress, escape, family, physical attractiveness of participants, quality of physical skill of participants, and social interaction. There was research done comparing men and women in the realm of sports consumption and the hypotheses were: that both men and women equally would report being a sports fan in general and of women’s or men’s basketball teams the researchers also hypothesized that there would be a large difference in the motives behind both men and women becoming fans of a particular team. The results of this study showed that females are sports fans in general but males have a stronger connection to sports. Not only females acquire an important social identity from sports but men do as well. Another finding of this study was that among the three highest rates core motives (Action, Escape, Drama) rated by women there was no difference among other sports