Examining the personalities of football fans according to their typologies

Abstract

This study aims to determine the typologies of football fans and reveal whether personality traits differ according to typologies. In this context, 353 fans who watched the match of the team they support at least twice from the stadium in the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 Turkish Football Super League and First League were included in the study. Based on these results, 353 fans were included in the study, and related analyses were carried out. “Fan Typology Scale” and “Adjective-Based Personality Test (ABPT)” were used as data collection tools. A two-stage hierarchical clustering analysis was used to reveal the fan typology, and the research questions were tested with analysis of variance and chi-square analyses. As a result, four types of fans were obtained in the study: hooligan, fanatic, classic, and social. When the personality traits of the obtained typologies were analyzed, it was found that extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to innovation scores were high, and emotional instability scores were average. However, it was determined that there were no statistically significant differences in the personality traits of the typologies. It is thought that the fact that the personality traits of hooligan fans showing violent tendencies are similar to the classical, social, and fanatic fans will contribute to the literature as one of the striking results of this study.