Sports fandom

[differenceblog]

Several tools have been developed to tap into the psyche of sports fans. While both men and women do attend and watch sporting events, some differences have emerged. Dietz-Uhler et al (2000), using the Sports Spectator Identification scale (SSI), found no significant differences between male and female college students on whether they self-identified as a sports fan, but did find differences in how important this was to their identity. Men also scored higher on general sports knowledge than women. Wann et al (1999) used the Sports Fan Motivation Scale (SFMS) on a random telephone book sample, and did find that men tended to score higher than women on that scale. Both studies concluded that women's reasons for following sports were more social (e.g. family tradition, going to games with friends) whereas men enjoyed acquiring sports knowledge and are more likely to play or have played sports themselves. James and Ridinger (2002) used the Motivation Scale for Sports Consumption (MSSC) on a sample collected from attendees of college basketball games, finding that while both men and women identified themselves as sports fans (unsurprisingly, given the sample), men were more likely to be interested in sport in general whereas women were more strongly identified with a particular team.

I was expecting to find that men were bigger sports fans than women when I set out on today's research, and I'm pleased to see that I only got partial confirmation of that bias. One common thread in all three of today's articles was the importance of sports awareness to the male identity. I suggest that this may be due to lack of other socially acceptable identity. Sports is a "safe" route for empathy and community feeling for men. Since people have started seeing me as male on a daily basis, I find that I am much more expected to be aware of, and knowledgable about, sports, which has led to quite a bit of this (video). I've had to start reading the sports page out of self-defense.