Sacred Sports: Moral Responses to Sports Media Content

Abstract

This study examines moral responses to sports media content. Using two conditions, participants ( N = 639) were randomly assigned to read a damaging sports article about their university’s basketball team, either written by an ingroup or outgroup member. Participants then reported their moral outrage to the article, moral cleansing responses, and team support intentions. Findings demonstrated that individuals demonstrated moral outrage, moral cleansing, and team support intentions when their favored team was derogated against, especially when the source of disparagement came from an outgroup member. Results are discussed in light of social identification and moral foundations theories.