Abstract
This article reports on two studies investigating seasonal changes in sport spectator identification, involvement, and evaluations. Two sports (basketball and football) and two team histories (successful and unsuccessful) were reviewed. Four variables were examined for their possible influence: season-long (trial) changes, varying degrees of identification, outcome of the previous contest, and location of the previous contest. The results indicated that there were significant changes in spectator identification, involvement, and evaluations throughout the season. Outcome of the previous game had an especially powerful impact on evaluations of the team’s performance and impacted the identification of supporters of the historically successful team but not supporters of the unsuccessful team. Fans with differential levels of identification did not differ in their changes in identification.
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This work was partially supported by grants from the Murray State University Committee on Institutional Studies and Research (Numbers 2-12865 and 2-12902) awarded to Daniel Wann. The author thanks Michael Schrader for his assistance with the data entry.
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Wann, D.L. Seasonal Changes in Spectators’ Identification and Involvement with and Evaluations of College Basketball and Football Teams. Psychol Rec 46, 201–215 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395172
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395172