Role of Team Performance,Team Identification,and Self-Esteem in Sport Spectators' Game Preferences

Abstract

The current study tested the hypothesis that sport fans would prefer contests in which both teams had been successful over contests in which one or both of the teams had been unsuccessful. Further, it was predicted that highly identified fans would report greater game preferences than lowly identified fans Finally, an interaction was predicted in which highly identified fans with high self-esteem would prefer games involving two successful teams while highly identified fans with low self-esteem would prefer games in which their team had a high likelihood of success. Participants (N = 54) were asked to complete measures of their team identification and self-esteem as well as report their preferences for different types of games. Analysis indicated that, although contests involving two successful teams were the most preferred and highly identified fans did report greater game preferences than lowly identified fans, the hypothesized interaction was not significant.

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