Attitudes of Players and Spectators toward Norm-Violation in Ice Hockey

Abstract

Previous studies measuring attitudes toward in sports have indicated that individuals tend to of rule-breaking behavior (Flory, 1958; McAffee, 1955). However, no effort has been undertaken in which players' and spectators' attitudes toward in sports were tested or the relative strengths of such attitudes were compared. The present endeavor has attempted to make such an assessment. Ss were 18 college hockey players (Mag. = 20 yr.) and 4 6 hockey spectators-26 males (M.,. = 25) and 20 females (M.,,. = 26) . Just prior to the start of a game, Ss were administered a 4-item scale constructed to measure toward One item measured a general attitude toward rule-breaking. The remaining three items asked Ss to state the degree to which they thought that hockey player was justified ( a ) if it would help the player's team win the game, ( b ) if it would allow a player to help a teammate who was being attacked by an opposing player, and (c ) if it would enable a player to get even with an opponent who had tried to harm him physically. Ss were asked to respond to each item using a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disapprove of norm-violation ( 1 ) to strongly approve ( 7 ) . S's score on the scale was the sum total of his responses, possible scores ranging from 4 to 28. T o test the degree to which players and spectators approved of norm-violation. Ss were grouped according to their scores into one of three caregories: high approval (score = 22 to 28) , medium approval (13 to 2 1 ) , and low approval ( 4 to 1 2 ) . T o test the relative strengths of spectators' vs players' attitudes, mean scale scores were computed for both groups and compared by t test. The findings suggested that both players and spectators generally approved of normviolation. For the players, 88.9% scored as h~ghly approving and 11.1% as having medium approval, while for spectators, 15 2 % scored high and 71 8 % medium. Subdivided by sex, 26.9% of the male spectators scored high and 57.7% medium, while no females scored high but 90% scored medium. Comparing strengths of attitudes toward rule-breaking, data indicated that players (mean score = 24) showed greater approval of than spectators (M = 16.4; t = 5.13, df = 62, p < .001), than male spectators ( M = 18.4; t = 4.79, df = 42, p < .001), and than female spectators ( M = 13.8; r = 4.04, d f = 44, p < .001). Also, male spectators displayed greater approval o f than female spectators ( t = 4.04, df = 44, p < .001).