Can fans’ social media activity before the game predict players’ aggression during the game? Evidence from Israeli Basketball Premier League

Abstract

This article investigates the feasibility of monitoring data obtained from comments posted by basketball fans on their Facebook pages to predict players’ aggression in Israeli basketball matches. The results revealed that aggressive behaviors of players were correlated with negative and positive utterances of fans that were collected 24 hours before the game. Negative utterances increased the level of aggression and positive utterances decreased the level of aggression. The location of the game moderates the correlations between fans’ traffic and players’ aggression. The bulk of the significant results were found in away games. The results are discussed as a possible explanation for the nexus of social media discourse and stadium aggression.