Social Hostility in Soccer and Beyond.

Niels J Van Doesum,Lot Verburgh,Paul A M Van Lange,Jan-Willem Van Prooijen,Hanna Christiansen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0153577

Abstract

Social hostility is seldom expressed overtly. More often than not, individuals try to get their hostile message across without risking violent altercations. However, subtle and relatively covert hostility is not easy to research. We suggest a novel way with the SoMi paradigm, a social decision making task that offers participants the opportunity to be socially mindful or socially hostile by leaving or limiting choice to others. Sampling a general population we find that, relative to friends and strangers, foes are indeed met with greater social hostility (Study 1). Focusing on the highly competitive environment of youth soccer, we find that rival team members elicit social hostility, whereas teammates elicit social mindfulness (Study 2). We conclude that social mindfulness and social hostility play a subtle role in the dynamics of interpersonal and/or intergroup relationships, in which leaving or limiting choice is one of the subtle ways to express benevolent versus hostile intentions; the SoMi paradigm may thus be helpful in identifying which way the ball rolls.

Highlights

In any competitive environment, social hostility is a common phenomenon
To ensure a certain level of animosity in these preliminary studies on social hostility as measured with the SoMi paradigm, we focused on two strong situations featuring stereotypical friends and foes
How do our preliminary findings contribute to the literature on hostility? For one thing, we have shown that the SoMi paradigm promises to be a clear, unobtrusive and practical way to assess mild levels of social hostility

Summary

Introduction

Social hostility is a common phenomenon. Consider the case of soccer. In the competitive context of a team sport like soccer, ingroup favoritism will be readily accompanied by outgroup derogation, often leading to various degrees of antagonism and hostility. Such hostility can be instrumental in forming and maintaining a social identity [5], and stereotypes of perceived coldness and feared competence may conceivably underlie such sentiments [6,7]. Expressing these sentiments does not always have to result in brash actions like biting competitors or other bellicose behavior

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion