Exploring the Relationship Between Sports Fandom and the Black Criminal Stereotype

Abstract

In news media, one stereotype that has continually been perpetuated is the overrepresentation of Blacks as criminals, leading to what many refer to as “the Black criminal stereotype.” Although research suggests that distorted portrayals of criminals in news affect social reality judgments regarding race and crime and provoke stereotypical responses in viewers, limited evidence exists that connects these effects to sport media. However, recent instances involving issues related to race and crime in sport have prompted us to consider the prevalence of a Black criminal stereotype among sport fans. With increased media attention given to off-field transgressions—particularly, violent ones perpetuated by high-profile Black athletes—we are left wondering how such attention may influence fans’ attitudes and beliefs. We explored these issues in an experimental study (n = 234). Our findings not only revealed evidence of a Black criminal stereotype among sports fans but also that sports fans differ from nonfans in basic attitudes and beliefs about crime and violence in sport. More specifically, the more a participant claimed to be a fan of sports and (more so) combative sports, the more she or he viewed an athlete charged with domestic abuse in a favorable light.

Keywords

Black criminal stereotype sports fandom media news combative sports

Exposure to media representations can play a significant role in the construction and maintenance of social perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and even actions among viewers (for excellent summaries of this literature, see Mastro, 2009; Oliver et al., 2014). One particular area in which media can play an influential role is the development of perceptions—including stereotypical ones—about persons of various racial and ethnic groups (Dixon, 2006; Dixon & Maddox, 2005; Mastro, 2003; Mastro & Kopacz, 2006; Oliver, Jackson, Moses, & Dangerfield, 2004). In news media specifically, one (over)representation that has continually been identified is that of African Americans (especially males) as criminals, leading to what many refer to as “the Black criminal stereotype.” Although research has consistently found that distorted news portrayals of criminals in general can lead to stereotypical judgments regarding race and crime, scholars have yet to examine the extent to which such effects may also extend to the specific case of sport news.

Given a spate of recent instances involving race and crime in sport, we are motivated to explore the prevalence of a Black criminal stereotype among sport fans. With increased media attention given to off-field transgressions—particularly, violent ones perpetuated by high-profile Black athletes—we are left wondering how such media portrayals influence fans’ attitudes and beliefs. Several instances of Black criminality in sport have received a tremendous amount of media attention, including the cases of professional football players Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, and Ray McDonald. In February 2014, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was arrested for allegedly assaulting his then fiancé, Janay Palmer, at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City (Bien, 2014). In May 2014, Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy was arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend and “throwing her to the floor, throwing [her] into a bathtub, slamming her against a futon, and strangling her” (Deery, 2014). In August 2014, San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence after his fiancé showed authorities bruises on her arm and neck that were allegedly caused in an altercation with McDonald (Sernoffsky, 2014). These are just a few of many examples of violent transgressions committed by athletes who have been heavily covered in media. Of course, athletes of various races (allegedly) commit violent crimes like domestic abuse: Josh Brown (White National Football League [NFL] player), Hector Olivera (Cuban Major League Baseball [MLB] player), Shahadat Hossain (Bangladeshi cricket player), and Jose Reyes (Dominican MLB player) to name just a few. However, media coverage of criminality in sport overrepresents Black athletes as criminals despite the fact that no data exist to support the notion that Black athletes commit more crimes (Berry & Smith, 2000). But because media consumers consistently encounter portrayals of Black criminality and violence in news media in general (and because studies of such have a strong tradition in communication scholarship), and now increasingly in sport media as well, it seems reasonable to presume that the prevalence of a Black criminal stereotype may exist among—and perhaps especially among—sports fans. Although critical research has shown that Black athletes are commonly represented as violent and deviant in media discourse (e.g., Davis & Othello, 1998; Grainger, Newman, & Andrews, 2006), from an empirical standpoint, our primary concern herein is how wider racialized discourses may contribute to negative stereotypical attitudes of Blackness. In fact, given media attention to off-field transgressions, we wonder whether sports fans may differ from nonfans in basic attitudes and beliefs about crime, especially those allegedly committed by an athlete.

With this as a backdrop, we aimed to explore social perceptions and attitudes of both sports fans and nonfans in relation to violence and crime by athletes. It is important to examine the effects of (potentially) stereotypical representations of athletes with regard to criminality because media representations of crime play an important role in shaping public opinion (Bjornstrom, Kaufman, Peterson, & Slater, 2010). Moreover, because the sports media industry continues to experience tremendous growth (Billings, Butterworth, & Turman, 2015), it is imperative to examine the potentially harmful effects of sports news’ portrayals in general and particularly of Black athletes. To do so, we must first examine research on media and the Black criminal stereotype, including a discussion of overrepresentations of Blacks as criminals in news media as well as how those representations may lead to the development of a Black criminal stereotype among consumers. Because no research exists to our knowledge on the prevalence of a Black criminal stereotype among sports fans, we must also briefly review research in two related areas: stereotypical portrayals of athletes in media and differences between sports fans and nonfans on attitudes associated with crime and violence.

Theoretical Considerations

Media Stereotyping

Stereotypes are cognitive constructs that associate (often negatively connoted) personal attributes and qualities to all members of a specific group, despite variation within that group (Hamilton, 1981). Research on stereotyping in media has generally focused on two broad themes: how media play a role in stereotype formation and how media may trigger existing stereotypes (Oliver et al., 2014). While stereotype-formation-through-media research has historically been based on cultivation theory logic (e.g., Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1986), examinations of media triggering existing stereotypes are primarily guided by priming theory as informed by network models of memory (see Roskos-Ewoldsen & Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2009, for an excellent overview). The focus of the current study is on the latter. Priming, in this context, “refers to the process by which recently activated information about a group (e.g., stereotypes) is used in making subsequent judgments of group-related stimuli” (Dixon & Maddox, 2005, p. 1556).¹ As the scholarly record has repeatedly indicated, media exposure can activate a variety of stereotypes (e.g., those related to race, gender, and age) and can therefore influence subsequent judgments of outgroup members.

Network (or cognitive associative) models of memory contend that all memories—including stereotypes—are organized (as concepts in cognitive structures known as nodes) and interconnected (via associative pathways) in our brains. When one node is activated—for instance, by encountering the corresponding stimulus in your environment—closely related concepts are also activated and made more accessible. As a result, those activated and accessible concepts are more readily available to be used to understand a situation. Thus, an activated concept can prime (or trigger) semantically related concepts, leading to thoughts that can affect the way people process information by directing attention to certain aspects of a situation, influencing the categorization of information, and helping to fill in gaps of missing information.

For example, the concept “African Americans” will be associated with a number of other concepts in one’s memory, including (depending on one’s experiences) “friend,” “coworker,” “teacher,” “shop owner,” “basketball player,” “minister,” “astrophysicist,” and so forth. The concept may also be associated with stereotypical concepts such as “dangerous” or “criminal,” and those concepts may also be associated with others, such as “fear” or “avoid.” If one concept, such as “dangerous”, is primed in the context of a media portrayal of an African American, then related cognitions may also be activated, such as “fear” or “avoid.” Such activation strengthens the associations between those concepts. Thus, if the same individual later sees an African American teenage male walking down the sidewalk, then his or her cognitive network associated with African Americans may be activated—including activation of terms like “dangerous” and “avoid”—which can lead to perceptions of the teenager as dangerous and which might induce fear and cause the individual to avoid the young man.

Further, although the priming of associated concepts is a fairly short-lived phenomenon (given that our brains must constantly process new information), the repeated priming of two concepts in relation to one another can have long-term effects. Specifically, the more frequently and recently concepts are coactivated in memory, the stronger the cognitive association between those two concepts becomes (Roskos-Ewoldsen, 1997). For example, the more often media consumers are presented with examples of dangerous African Americans, the stronger the association between those two concepts becomes in their memories. The stronger the cognitive association, the more likely that one concept will be activated when the other is primed. In fact, research consistently demonstrates that repeated coactivation of concepts can make an association chronically accessible, meaning that the activation of one concept (e.g., African American) automatically activates the other (e.g., dangerous; Devine, 1989; Fiske & Taylor, 1991; Higgins, 2000).

Media and the Black Criminal Stereotype

As noted above, in news media, one stereotyped association that has continually been perpetuated is that of Blacks as criminals. An abundance of research has demonstrated that Blacks are overrepresented as perpetrators of crime in news media, both proportionally when compared to Whites and in comparison to real-world crime statistics (e.g., Campbell, 1995; Dixon & Linz, 2000; Entman, 1992); this is particularly the case on local television news (Dixon, 2008b). Further, television news overrepresents violent Black criminality (Dixon, 2008a). Distorted news coverage of race and crime can have deleterious effects on viewers, including contributing to misperceptions about criminal activity in the Unites States (Dixon & Linz, 2000; Entman, 1992; Gilliam & Iyengar, 1998). For example, crime continues to be a major concern for American citizens despite the fact that the rate of violent crime has drastically declined since the early 1990s (U.S. Department of Justice, 2016); many scholars contend that media representations of crime play a role in perpetuating this disconnect.

Moreover, as the priming research indicates, exposure to such overrepresentations can activate and further strengthen the cognitive associations between concepts related to African Americans and criminality in the memories of audience members. Once the stereotype is activated, “it has the potential to bias the way incoming information is processed, usually in ways that are consistent with the stereotype,” and “as a result, short-term priming of the association between Blacks and criminality is likely to have an influence on subsequent group-related memory and judgments” (Dixon & Maddox, 2005, p. 1556). Thus, the activation of the Black criminal stereotype through, for instance, news accounts can influence attitudes and behavioral tendencies toward African Americans by creating and perpetuating perceptions of Blacks as violent (Dixon, 2008a). In this way, the continued overrepresentation of Blacks as perpetrators of crime in news media can promote racial stereotypes and reinforce public hostility toward Blacks (Bjornstrom et al., 2010).

Three specific findings germane to the current study have emerged from research investigating the activation of the Black criminal stereotype (Dixon, 2008c). First, exposure to just a single news story with a Black perpetrator can activate stereotypes of Blacks as criminals and influence subsequent judgments regarding race and crime. For example, Peffley, Shields, and Williams (1996) manipulated the race of a criminal suspect briefly shown in a single television news story about violent crime. Following exposure, participants who endorsed negative stereotypes of African Americans rated a Black suspect as more frightening, more guilty, more deserving of punishment, and more likely to commit future violence than those who saw a White suspect. Further, Dixon and Maddox (2005) found that participants expressed more emotional concern about a news story featuring a dark-skinned Black murder suspect than those exposed to the same story featuring a White perpetrator, while a similar study found that participants exposed to a story about a Black murder suspect reported increased negative attitudes toward African Americans and more support for punitive crime policy than those exposed to the same story featuring a White suspect (Gilliam & Iyengar, 2000).

Second, the Black criminal stereotype may be activated even when people are exposed to a crime story containing a race-unidentified suspect. That is, viewers tend to react similarly to both Black criminal suspects and race-unidentified criminal suspects in a news story, presumably because race-unidentified suspects are assumed to be Black (Dixon, 2008c). As noted above, because news programs generally overrepresent criminals as Black, viewers likely form cognitive associations between the concepts of African Americans and crime. When presented with a news story about a race-unidentified suspect, research consistently shows that individuals are more likely to infer that the suspect is Black than another race (e.g., Dixon, 2007; Shrum, 1996).

Third, research indicates that individual-difference variables may facilitate the activation of the Black criminal stereotype. For example, Dixon (2008c) observed that stereotype endorsers were more likely than stereotype rejecters to rate a Black suspect as threatening and to endorse punitive crime policy. Because prejudice level may potentiate media priming effects, race—another individual-difference variable—also plays an important role in the activation of the Black criminal stereotype. For example, research has consistently found that Whites are more likely to be influenced by racial primes than people of color (Dixon, 2006; Gilliam & Iyengar, 1998; Gilliam, Valentino, & Beckmann, 2002). Another individual-difference variable that may facilitate the activation of the Black criminal stereotype is gender. As Dixon (2008b) found, males are more likely than females to endorse African American stereotypes. Additionally, television news viewing mediates the effects of activating the Black criminal stereotype, with heavy viewers more likely to view the world as dangerous and to perceive a race-unidentified suspect as guilty following exposure to a Black suspect (Dixon, 2006). In fact, Dixon and Azocar (2007) found that television news viewing in general facilitates stereotype activation; in the current study, we will explore whether this effect extends to sports news consumption as well.

Sport Media Stereotyping

Although, to our knowledge, no previous empirical studies have examined the prevalence of the Black criminal stereotype among sports fans, critical research examining other issues related to stereotypical representations in sport media is plentiful. Numerous content analyses report that Black and White athletes are portrayed differently across the media landscape (Angelini & Billings, 2010; Billings, 2003, 2004; Billings & Eastman, 2002; Billings, Halone, & Denham, 2002; Denham, Billings, & Halone, 2002; Eastman & Billings, 2001). For instance, while White athletes are often described in relation to their intelligence, ability to read plays, and strong work ethic, Black athletes are often discussed in terms of their physicality, strength, and natural ability. As Grainger, Newman, and Andrews (2006) explained, this stereotyping of natural Black athleticism “suggests that African Americans possess innate physiological advantages while conversely lacking the necessary skills and intelligence to succeed in other occupational areas” (p. 452). Further, media representations of Black athletes commonly reinforce general portrayals of African American males as violent, deviant, and threatening. As we mentioned above, reports of Black athletes and their off-field criminal behaviors are particularly common in sports media, and “such depictions are believed to lead some audiences to draw a parallel between deviant African-American male athletes and wider criminality among African-American males in society” (p. 454). Thus, while there is a lack of empirical research surrounding the Black criminal stereotype in sports, media overrepresentation of Black athletes as criminals has been addressed by applying other epistemological lenses within the communication discipline. Although critical scholars may not term this overrepresentation as “the Black criminal stereotype,” wider racialized discourses associated with media portrayals of Black athletes as violent contribute to negative stereotypical portrayals of Blackness.

Given this, it seems reasonable to assume that those most exposed to such representations—that is, sports fans—would likely experience pronounced adverse effects. However, no research to our knowledge exists regarding attitude differences between sports fans and nonfans with regard to crime and violence, although some work regarding sports violence and enjoyment may be relevant here. Aggressive play can enhance the entertainment value of sporting events and increase viewer enjoyment (Bryant, Comisky, & Zillmann, 1981). Furthermore, this impact is greater among fans; that is, fans particularly enjoy violent sporting events more than sporting events without violence (Gantz & Wenner, 1991, 1995). For instance, Raney and Depalma (2006) found that viewers of sports violence reported more enjoyment than viewers of nonviolent sports and that the difference was more pronounced among sports fans. Other research has suggested that sports fans may be more accepting of on-field violence, especially when it comes to their favorite team. This may be because sports fans interpret rule breaking of their favorite team as morally acceptable (Raney, 2011). Regardless, given sports fans’ attachment to the game, a team, or even a particular player, it stands to reason that fans may view on-field violence much differently than nonfans. However, it is unclear whether that extends to off-field acts as well, with sports fans differing from nonfans in basic attitudes and beliefs about crime and violence in sport.

To sum, based on the existing research record and the continued overrepresentation of African Americans as criminal (both in general and in sport news), it seems plausible—even perhaps likely—that the Black criminal stereotype is prevalent among sports fans. But, as noted above, to date, no study has specifically examined this phenomenon. Thus, we chose to investigate these relationships through our first research question:

Research Question 1: Is the Black criminal stereotype more prevalent among sports fans versus nonfans?

Additionally, although an abundance of critical research has interrogated stereotypical representations of Black criminality in sport (for a more extensive overview, see Leonard, 2006), little, if any, empirical research has examined the effects of such representations with regard to sports fans’ attitudes, beliefs, and social judgments of crime in sport and by athletes. This brings us to a second research question:

Research Question 2: Do sports fans differ from nonfans in basic attitudes and beliefs about crime and violence in sport?

Methodology

To explore these two research questions, we utilized a randomized experimental design. A total of 238 undergraduate students enrolled in communication courses at a large, state-supported research university in the southern United States participated in the study in exchange for course or extra credit. Four cases were deleted due to incomplete surveys, leaving a total of 234 participants. The majority of the participants were female (75.6%) and Caucasian (73.8%), with an average age of 19.53 years.

Procedures

Data were collected during 29 research sessions held in on-campus computer labs, with the lead author proctoring each session. Upon entering the lab, participants completed an Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved consent form. Following a brief set of verbal instructions, participants completed an initial survey (programmed using Qualtrics Survey Software) that included media use, general interest, sports fanship, and demographic items. The participants then read a brief news story on the U.S. economy (hereafter “distractor article,” word count = 228). The article was taken verbatim from the Money Watch section of CBSNews.com; it was presented to the participants as a screen capture from the site. After reading the article, the participants responded to items measuring their memory of the article and various attitudes concerning its content. The primary purposes of the first news article were to establish the ecological validity of the content in the study and to familiarize the participants with the study protocols. Although data were collected for the distractor article, none were analyzed.

Participants then read a second article describing the arrest of a male college student in conjunction with the murder of a fellow male student at a university in the Midwestern United States (hereafter “priming article,” word count = 184). The content of the article was manipulated from a report of an actual crime. The names of both the victim and the alleged assailant were altered for the study. Although the content of the article was manipulated, it was once again presented as a screen capture from the CBSNews.com site (Crimesider section). The purpose of the second article was to systematically activate crime-related thoughts so that such thoughts were (as much as possible) equally salient among the participants.² As with the first article, participants responded to memory and attitudinal items concerning the crime story content, but none of those data were analyzed for the current project.

Finally, participants were randomly assigned to read one of the two versions of a third news article (hereafter “target article”; n = 117 for both conditions). The content of the article was manipulated from a report of an actual crime. Presented as a screen capture from CBSSports.com, the article chronicled the arrest of a college football player on charges associated with either (1) marijuana possession (word count = 318) or (2) domestic violence (word count = 317). In both versions, the player was named “Brandon Johnson” and was described as an NFL prospect who played on the offensive line at “Western Oregon University”; also, in both articles, his unnamed girlfriend was said to be the one who filed the charges. Of the 16 sentences in the two target stories, 12 were identical both in terms of content and placement on the page. One sentence differed by stating that “The victim…said she was threatened by her boyfriend of three years,” as opposed to “The caller…said her boyfriend was dealing large amounts of marijuana.” Another differed by stating “the victim said she suffered physical and emotional abuse” versus “the girlfriend said Johnson had been smoking marijuana for quite some time.” A third sentence differed in the way the player’s attorney described the situation: “this looks like one of those big [domestic abuse/drug] cases, but it really isn’t.” Similarly, the girlfriend’s attorney mentioned “the tell-tale signs of [partner/drug] abuse.” Beyond these few necessary differences, the articles were identical. Perhaps most importantly for our purposes, neither version of the article mentioned (or pictured) the athlete’s race. As with the previous two articles, the participants responded to memory and attitudinal items about the article’s contents. Upon completing the final questionnaire, students were read an IRB-approved debriefing script, offered a chance to ask questions about the study, and were thanked and dismissed.

Independent Measures

Previous studies of sports (e.g., Sargent, Zillmann, & Weaver, 1998), news (e.g., Dixon, 2006, 2007), and stereotyping (e.g., Mastro, Seate, Blecha, & Gallegos, 2012) have identified participant gender and race as potentially influential variables; thus, both were gathered in this study.³ Furthermore, two measures of sport fanship were collected. First, general sport fanship was measured using a 10-item scale adapted from past research (Raney & Depalma, 2006; Raney & Kinnally, 2009). On a 7-point scale, participants indicated how interested they were in activities such as “sports in general,” “baseball,” and “watching sports news on TV.” As in previous research, the scale proved extremely reliable (observed Cronbach’s α = .941). Therefore, all items were averaged for each participant to yield a single general sport fanship score, with higher values associated with greater fanship (M = 3.15, SD = 1.50). A second measure of sport fanship was created using two items on the general sports fanship scale. Combative sport fanship was calculated as the average of the items measuring interest in “football” and “hockey” (M = 3.26, SD = 1.53). This approach is similar to that taken in past research on violent sport enjoyment (Sargent et al., 1998) and was justified by the strong, positive correlation between the two items (r = .44, p < .001).

Dependent Measures

As noted above, although participants responded to memory and attitude items after reading all three articles, only those following the final, target article were of interest for our analyses. One multiple-choice, memory item was used to ensure that the participants paid sufficient attention to the content of the article: “What crime did the suspect allegedly commit?” Our intention was to analyze only data from participants who correctly answered this question. Fortunately, all participants correctly answered the item. Thus, data from all 234 participants were included in the final analyses.

In line with past research (Dixon, 2007), to evaluate the activation of the Black criminal stereotype, we asked participants to identify the race of the athlete alleged to have committed the crime in the target article (i.e., either marijuana possession or domestic abuse). A 3-item response set was offered: “White,” “Black,” and “I don’t know.” As the reader will recall, the article made no mention of the suspect’s race. A total of 163 (or 69.7%) of the respondents “correctly” selected the “I don’t know” item; thus, 71 (or 30.3%) inferred race.

Respondents also recorded their perceptions of the alleged suspect on eight, 5-point Likert-type scale items, adopted from Dixon (2008a, 2008c). In this scale, five items were negatively valenced (threatening, dangerous, violent, criminal, and aggressive) and three were positively valenced (happy, peaceful, and nice) and were reverse coded. The scale was reliable (observed Cronbach’s α = .872); therefore, responses were averaged across the eight items to construct a suspect perception factor, with higher scores associated with a more negative perception of the suspect (M = 2.98, SD = 0.57).

Two items, adopted from Peffley et al. (1996), gauged emotional reactions (anger and fear) toward the suspect, using a 5-point, Likert-type scale (with 1 = not at all and 5 = very much). The two items were highly correlated (r = .62, p < .001) Therefore, an emotional reaction to the suspect factor was created by averaging the responses on the two items, with higher scores associated with a greater negative emotional response (M = 2.42, SD = 1.07).

Two sets of items, also adopted from Peffley et al. (1996), measured perceptions related to the suspect’s guilt, future actions, and punishment. A guilt and recidivism factor was calculated as the average of responses to three items: perceived guilt for this crime, likelihood to commit the crime again, and likelihood to act aggressively in the future. Responses were indicated on a Likert-type scale, with 1 = not at all likely to 5 = very likely. The items were sufficiently reliable (observed Cronbach’s α = .682). Higher scores on the guilt and recidivism scale were associated with a greater expectation of negative future outcomes (M = 3.31, SD = 0.65). Finally, a single-item measure recorded a proposed sentence (in years) for the suspect if convicted of the crime (M = 1.45, SD = 0.66). Responses were indicated on a 5-point scale, with higher scores associated with a more severe punishment.

Results

To examine the prevalence of a Black criminal stereotype among sport fans, we examined the inferred race of the unidentified suspect in the target news story. As noted above, 69.7% of the sample correctly stated that they did not know the race of the suspect. Logistic regression procedures were used to examine the nature of those respondents (30.3%) who inferred a race for the suspect. Across the entire sample, participants were significantly more likely to infer that the suspect was Black (77.46%) rather than White: Wald(1) = 18.90, p < .001, Exp(B) = 3.44. That is, participants who inferred a race of the suspect were nearly three and a half times more likely to “remember” that the unidentified suspect was Black than White. General sport fanship, Wald(1) = 4.45, p < .05, and combative sport fanship, Wald(1) = 6.14, p < .05, were both significant predictors of this phenomenon. For every one-unit increase in general sport fanship, a participant was 1.70 times more likely to infer that the suspect was Black (as opposed to White). Similarly, a one-unit increase in combative sport fanship was associated with a 1.79 times greater likelihood to infer that the suspect was Black.

Attempts to analyze these data by target news story condition (i.e., domestic abuse vs. marijuana possession) yielded cell sizes too small to permit meaningful interpretations. However, generally speaking, it appears that those reading the story about domestic abuse tended to be less likely to infer the suspect’s race (n = 26 or 22.2%) than those in the marijuana possession condition (n = 45 or 38.5%). However, the discrepancy between the inference of Black and White appeared to point to a possible trend (at least from a descriptive perspective) in the domestic abuse condition (n = 22 inferring Black vs. n = 4 inferring White) that was perhaps less apparent in the marijuana possession condition (n = 33 inferring Black vs. n = 12 inferring White). But, again, we caution interpretation of the findings, given the small cells sizes in these analyses.

Correlations between general sport fanship and the other dependent variables in the study were next examined. As Table 1 reports, within the entire sample, general sport fanship was marginally associated with only two variables: emotional reaction and sentencing. In both cases, the relationship was negative. That is, greater sport fanship was weakly associated with less negative (or more positive) emotional reactions to the suspect and with a recommendation of a more lenient sentence for the crime. When the target article condition was considered, a somewhat stronger pattern emerged. Specifically, for participants who read the domestic abuse article, general sport fanship was significantly associated with emotional reactions and again marginally associated with proposed sentencing. Additionally, general sports fanship was significantly correlated with perceptions of the suspect. In each case, the relationships were negative. Thus, greater general sport fanship was associated with less negative feelings toward and perceptions of an athlete accused of domestic abuse; it was also weakly associated with a more lenient sentence for that athlete if found guilty. The same basic pattern was observed when the effects of gender and race were controlled. However, none of these relationships were observed with participants who read the article about an athlete arrested on a marijuana charge.

Table 1.

Correlation Analysis With General Sport Fanship, With and Without Controlling for Participant Gender and Race.

	Overall (df = 1, 232)		Domestic Abuse Condition (df = 1, 115)
Dependent measures	r	partial r	R	partial r
Suspect perceptions	−.033	−.045	−.182**	−.183**
Emotional reaction to suspect	−.113*	−.107	−.208**	−.176*
Guilt and recidivism	−.039	−.027	−.123	−.104
Proposed sentencing	−.125*	−.116*	−.181*	−.163*

*p < .10. **p < .05.

A similar, yet stronger, pattern of relationships emerged when combative sport fanship was examined, again using correlational analyses. As Table 2 reports, within the entire sample, combative sport fanship was significantly associated with emotional reactions and proposed sentencing. As was previously found, the relationship was negative in both cases. That is, greater combative sport fanship was associated with less negative emotional reactions to the suspect and with a more lenient proposed sentence for the crime. Again, when the target article condition was considered, a yet stronger pattern emerged. Specifically, combative sport fanship was significantly correlated with emotional reactions to, perceptions of, and proposed sentencing for an athlete accused of domestic abuse. Once again, these relationships were negative. Thus, greater combative sport fanship was associated with less negative feelings toward, less negative perceptions of, and the recommendation of a more lenient sentence for an athlete accused of domestic abuse. The pattern remained constant when the effects of participant gender and race were controlled. As was the case with general fanship, none of these relationships were observed with participants in the marijuana-possession condition.

Table 2.

Correlation Analysis With Combative Sport Fanship, With and Without Controlling for Participant Gender and Race.

	Overall (df = 1, 232)		Domestic Abuse Condition Only (df = 1, 115)
Dependent measures	r	partial r	R	partial r
Suspect perceptions	−.072	−.089	−.214**	−.215**
Emotional reaction to suspect	−.130**	−.129**	−.237**	−.208**
Guilt and recidivism	−.028	−.021	−.096	−.076
Proposed sentencing	−.187***	−.182***	−.252***	−.237**

*p < .10. **p < .05. ***p < .01.

Discussion

The goal of this study was (1) to examine the prevalence of the Black criminal stereotype among sports fans and (2) to explore the extent to which sports fandom might be associated with various attitudes about criminality, especially when it relates to an alleged criminal who happens to be an athlete. To that end, we conducted an experiment where participants, after being primed by a crime story, read a news account of a football player’s arrest for either marijuana possession or domestic abuse. Three particular findings warrant our attention: the first relating to the Black criminal stereotype, the second to general sports fanship and attitudes toward crime in sport, and the third to combative sports fanship and attitudes toward crime in sport.

First, our findings reveal evidence that the Black criminal stereotype does indeed exist among sports fans. As previous research indicates (Dixon, 2007, 2008c; Gilliam & Iyengar, 2000), the Black criminal stereotype may be activated when participants are exposed to a news story with a race-unidentified criminal suspect, with participants often inferring that the criminal was Black. The same was the case in our study. Participants across the entire sample, regardless of sports fandom, were significantly more likely to infer that the race-unidentified suspect was Black than White. However, general sport fanship and combative sport fanship were indeed both significant predictors of this phenomenon. That is, among those who inferred a race for the race-unidentified suspect in the target article, sports fans were more likely to infer that the suspect was Black. Thus, with respect to our first research question, we not only observed evidence of a Black criminal stereotype among sports fans but also that activation of that stereotype is more prevalent among sports fans versus nonfans. That is, participants were more likely to infer that a race-unidentified suspect was Black (as opposed to White), the more they were a fan of sports.

Unfortunately, this result is not unexpected. Because sport media continuously portray Black athletes as criminal, deviant, and violent (Grainger et al., 2006), it is likely that sports fans form a strong cognitive association between Blacks and criminality in memory, increasing the likelihood of them assuming that a race-unidentified suspect is Black. Increased Black criminal stereotype activation among sports fans matters on a societal level because it can influence attitudes and behavioral tendencies toward Blacks, further perpetuating notions of Blacks as violent (Dixon, 2008a). If sport media (and sport culture) perpetuate a Black criminal stereotype and reinforce perceptions of Blacks as more violent or dangerous than other criminals, they may continue to reinforce public hostility toward Blacks (Bjornstrom et al., 2010). Moreover, previous research has found that frequent stereotype activation leads to chronic stereotype activation over time (Devine, 1989; Fiske & Taylor, 1991; Higgins, 2000), which may cause automatic use of the Black criminal stereotype among sports fans.

Our second significant finding is that general sports fanship was predictive of less harsh responses to the criminal athlete in the target story. Although general sports fanship was weakly associated with less negative emotional reactions to the suspect and with a more lenient sentence for the crime, the fact that a stronger pattern emerged when the target article was considered is quite significant. Greater general sport fanship was associated with less negative feelings toward and perceptions of an athlete only in the domestic abuse case and not in the marijuana case. That is, sports fanship predicted more sympathetic attitudes toward an athlete charged with the (arguably) much more serious crime of domestic abuse, but not for an athlete charged with marijuana possession. Additionally, general sport fanship was weakly associated with a more lenient sentence for that athlete if found guilty in the domestic abuse case only.

We offer several explanations for this observation. First, given the violent nature of sports, it is possible that fans have become desensitized to violence and therefore do not see violent transgressions committed by athletes as (relatively) a big deal. This might explain why many fans (even female fans!) were quick to defend Ray Rice (Litman, 2014) and other high-profile criminal athletes. Second, it is also possible that fans may only care about off-field transgressions when they might directly affect the games played. While an athlete abusing his girlfriend has no on-field effect (unless it results in a suspension), drug use by an athlete could have tangible on-field effects as far as performance is concerned. Furthermore, fans may see drug use by athletes as a disgrace to the integrity of the game and may therefore look down upon it more than domestic abuse. In fact, it is also possible that given recent discrepancies in “punishments” levied by leagues for various crimes—for example, Josh Gordon’s 1-year suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy versus Ray Rice’s initial two game suspension for striking his then-fiancé—fans may have become accustomed to more harsh penalties for drug use than domestic violence, obscuring their perceptions of reality in relation to crime. Additionally, because hegemonic masculinity is inherent in sports culture (Connell, 1995), it is possible that misogynistic attitudes in sport influence the ways in which sports fans view violence against women. Of course, another possible explanation for these findings can be found outside the culture of sports. An abundance of research indicates that prosecution rates for domestic violence are rare, infrequent, or typically low (for a meta-analytical overview of this research, see Garner & Maxwell, 2009), and therefore, broader sentencing disparities between drugs and domestic violence found throughout society may merely be replicated in sports.

Although the findings regarding general sport fanship are certainly interesting, even more significant are the ones associated with combative sports fanship. Specifically, combative sports fanship predicted less harsh perceptions of the criminal (domestic abuse condition only), fewer negative feelings toward the criminal (overall and in the domestic abuse condition), and shorter recommended sentencing (overall and in the domestic abuse condition) for the accused athlete. With regard to our second research question of whether sports fans differ from nonfans in basic attitudes and beliefs about crime and violence in sport, the answer seems to be a resounding “yes.” The more a participant claimed to be a fan of sports in general and (more so) combative sports, the more she or he viewed an athlete charged with domestic abuse in a favorable light. Again, this was not the case for an athlete charged with marijuana possession.

If we are looking for an explanation of this phenomenon, the most logical explanation would be the violent nature of sports. Because combative sports fans reported less negative feelings toward, less negative perceptions of, and the recommendation of a more lenient sentence for an athlete accused of domestic abuse, it is possible that the violent nature of combative sports may influence those persons to interpret violent transgressions committed by athletes as less severe, fairly innocuous, and not a big deal, even more so than general sports fans. Regardless of the explanation for this phenomenon, we contend that it is problematic that sports fans may view these instances as less serious than other people.

Of course, as with any study, ours has some limitations. First, as noted above, we initially intended to also examine the priming effect of photographs with the priming article. However, no priming effects of those photographs were observed. We think this is likely due to methodological reasons: Perhaps the photographs were not large enough or that the placement of the photograph (at the top of the article) was not obvious enough. At the same time, we think our decision to collapse all the intended priming conditions into one is perfectly justified (given no differences across groups). But additional studies related to the role of priming in the sport media context are surely needed. Additionally, Dixon (2006, 2008c) found that individual difference variables—prejudice level and stereotype endorsement—may facilitate media priming effects; we did not measure such differences in our initial survey. In truth, we strategically chose to not use these measures for validity reasons (e.g., hypothesis guessing or accidentally priming individuals to the Black criminal stereotype beforehand). But future researchers may want to consider finding a way to include such items, perhaps in a pretest scenario.

Although this study specifically examined the Black criminal stereotype in sport, given recent high-profile cases of White criminality in sport (e.g., Josh Brown), further sport research is warranted to explore differences in media representations of Black and White criminality. Examining the differences in media frames, presumptions of innocence, and contextual information in cases between Black and White criminal athletes may yield important findings. Additionally, we recognize that the type of sport an athlete plays may largely influence fan attitudes about crime and violence. Because the target article in this experiment chronicled the arrest of a college football player, we wonder how applicable our findings may be to sport in general. Further research is needed that explores the Black criminal stereotype in other sports, particularly those without a predominately Black population of athletes, such as hockey or soccer. Finally, although “the one-story manipulation is useful for understanding the extent to which specific elements of a news story might influence judgments” (Dixon, 2007, p. 286), studies that mimic a television environment, where Black criminals are overrepresented, might have different effects. Thus, providing multiple stories of Black criminal athletes embedded within an entire sports news segment might have resulted in different (and perhaps even more pronounced) findings. Subsequent research should consider such a design.

To conclude, we think that, as a first attempt, our study offers some interesting (and troubling) initial evidence about the relationship between the Black criminal stereotype and sports fanship. However, it is clear that further studies are needed. Do fans of violent sports—males and females alike—really see domestic abuse as less serious a crime than nonfans? Our findings, in conjunction with recent anecdotal evidence—some of which was at least alluded to in the excellent documentary The Hunting Ground (2015)—give us serious reason to pause and ponder that question all the more. We encourage others in the sport media community to do the same and begin examining these incredibly important social issues.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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