Making Sense of Attitudes toward the US National Anthem Protests: Examining the Role of Empathic Concern, and Perspective-Taking

Abstract

The most recent US national anthem protests started when former National Football League (NFL) player Colin Kaepernick decided not to stand during the national anthem before a preseason football game in August of 2016. These national anthem protests have been perceived in a variety of ways by the audience/public. This study examines the role of empathic concern and perspective taking in shaping people's perceptions toward the national anthem protests. Using a sample of 326 participants, correlations and multiple regression analysis were conducted. The results reveal that empathic concern was positively related to favorable attitudes towards national anthem protests while perspective-taking was surprisingly not related to attitudes toward the national anthem protests. The meaning and implications of each the results are discussed.

Keywords:

• Empathic concern
• protest
• perspective-taking
• sports communication