Rivalry and fan aggression: why acknowledging conflict reduces tension between rival fans and downplaying makes things worse

ABSTRACT

Research question: In order to reduce fan aggression surrounding rivalry games, team sport organizations often try to placate fans by downplaying the importance of the game (e.g. ‘the derby is not a war’). Drawing on the intergroup conflict literature, this research derives dual identity statements and examines their effectiveness in reducing fan aggressiveness compared to the managerial practice of downplaying rivalry.

Research methods: Three field experimental studies (one face-to-face survey and two online surveys) tested the hypotheses. Established rivalries in the German soccer league Bundesliga served as the empirical setting of the studies. The data were analyzed using ANCOVA and linear regression analyses.

Results and findings: Dual identity statements reduce fan aggressiveness compared to both downplay statements and a no-statement control condition, independent of team identification and trait aggression. Importantly, the managerial practice of downplaying rivalry appears to be counterproductive. It produces even higher levels of fan aggressiveness than making no statement, an effect caused by psychological reactance.

Implications: Sport organizations should not alienate their fan base by attempting to play down the importance of rivalry, which is an integral part of fan identity. Instead, they should strengthen the supporters’ unique identity (as fans of a particular team) while at the same time facilitating identification with the rival at a superordinate level (e.g. as joint fans of a region).

KEYWORDS:

• Rivals
• superordinate identity
• violence
• aggressive behavior
• reactance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Johannes Berendt http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4984-2810

Sebastian Uhrich http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1099-1795

Notes

1 A content analysis of managerial statements was conducted to identify and categorize the most commonly used communication approaches prior to rivalry games. For five well-known rivalries in England and Germany, the archives of the most popular local newspapers were searched for statements from officials in the build-up to the rivalry game. Downplaying proved to be a dominant strategy.

2 Across all three studies, we only found the reported effects after filtering out inattentive participants. However, this is no surprise because reading and understanding the article is a prerequisite for the manipulation to work and effects to occur.