Social Identity Can be a Team Game: Social Identity and Other Factors that Widen and Bridge Partisan Gaps in Political Perceptions of Sports Media Topics

Based on social identity, self-categorization, and optimal distinctiveness theories, this article argues that fans of team sports clubs (TSCs) may position themselves as members of their TSCs or as unique, individual sports fans. To date, no published, validated instrument has been designed to measure differences in sports fans’ personal and social identity orientation. We conducted three studies to test the validity and reliability of the Fan Social–Personal Identity Salience (FSPIS) scale. In the first two, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed. The third study used a structural equation model to test the consequences of the new scale in an extension of the test of its nomological network validity. The data for the current research was collected using three distinct and separate empirical surveys of professional basketball fans in Israel. Our findings show that there is a moderate correlation between social and personal identities, indicating that a low level of social identity is not the same as personal identity. The FSPIS scale predicted fan optimism and satisfaction, which, in turn, partially mediated the effect on involvement. The uniqueness of the proposed scale is that it is a continuous scale that is able to capture mixed identity salience and variations in its magnitude.

Choreographed Fan Displays: The Case of Israeli Sports

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Why Do People Join Groups? Three Motivational Accounts from Social Psychology

Currently, there are more than 40 million immigrants in the United States, and immigrant sports consumers have been considered a significant niche market in the sport industry. In particular, Major League Baseball (MLB) teams have realized that Korean immigrants, along with Japanese immigrants, are among the most attractive Asian immigrant MLB markets in the U.S., because of their large populations in the U.S. and the popularity of baseball in their native countries (Kim & Jeon, 2008). However, there has been limited research regarding Asian immigrants’ team identification with MLB teams. The theoretical framework of this study is drawn from acculturation theory (Berry, 1997) and social identity theory (Tajfel, 1982). Berry defines acculturation as “the general processes and outcomes (both cultural and psychological) of intercultural contact” (Berry, p. 8). Acculturation theory has been widely used to explain the adaptation patterns of immigrants to a new society. This theory further explains not only how immigrants evolve in new cultural contexts resulting from migration, but also how they retain their original cultural contexts and beliefs while in their new society (Berry, 1997). According to Berry (1980), there are four types of acculturation strategies: integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization. These four acculturation strategies differ according to immigrants’ efforts to adapt to new cultural contexts as well as the extent of their relationships with their new as well as with their old societies. Social identity theory (Tajfel, 1982) is a useful theoretical framework for team identification. Social identity is defined as “the part of the individual’s self-concept which derives from their knowledge of their membership in a social group together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership (p.2)”. Team identification research has been developed based on social identity theory and identity theory (Kwon, Trail, & James, 2007). Team identification is an extension of self-identity that results from a sports fan’s psychological connection to a team (Fink, Trail, & Anderson, 2002). The purpose of this study is to understand the Major League Baseball fandom of Korean immigrants by exploring factors associated with recent Korean immigrants’ team identification with MLB teams in the U.S.

Democracy depends upon citizens’ ability and motivation to make political decisions: the decision to turn out and vote, to protest, or simply to support or oppose certain policies. Political scientists have dedicated significant attention to the study of individual political decision-making. This type of research was primarily shaped by the rational choice paradigm, which assumes the individual acts as a rational agent and attempts to explain and predict political behavior by examining the costs and benefits associated with it. This approach, however, does not account for people’s decision to become politically active in the face of high costs and low returns. Whereas some researchers have tried to further develop rational choice theory by expanding its parameters, political psychologists have explored alternative avenues including genetics, neuroscience, and personality and social psychology. Social psychology in particular has gained recognition among political scientists as the concept of social identity has spread throughout the discipline. Social identity theory focuses on the part of an individual’s self-concept that is derived from perceived membership in a social or political group. In the political realm, race, religion, and ethnicity, as well as ideology and partisanship, represent some of the most consequential identities for people’s political preferences. In particular, an abundance of research has shown partisanship to be one of the strongest predictors of political attitudes, turnout, and voting behavior. Notably—and breaking with some of the axioms of rational choice—this string of research demonstrates that partisanship is not necessarily grounded in ex-ante political preferences and carefully considered party platforms but instead drives people’s political attitudes and behaviors. From that vantage point, the social identity approach reverses the causal arrow that was originally posited by rational choice: Rather than being the outcome of stable political preferences, partisanship serves as their origin. To explain this reversed causation, social identity researchers postulate that partisans utilize their group membership as an anchor to navigate the political word. Motivated by the desire to be good team players and advance the party’s status, partisans fall in line with their party, thereby aligning their political attitudes with the party’s platform. Using surveys and field experiments, political psychologists have provided convincing evidence for the validity of these psychological dynamics. Especially in the United States, partisan identity is a key factor in explaining mass political polarization and interparty hostility. Contrary to many expectations, however, the social identity approach’s utility goes beyond the United States’ two-party system and extends to European multiparty systems despite the substantial variations across political systems. In addition to its value for empirical political behavior research, Social identity theory also comes with heavy normative implications. If partisans blindly follow their party’s stances on crucial political decisions, how can one ensure accountability, increase citizens’ understanding of complex political issues, and encourage partisans to reach across the aisle and engage with their political rivals?

Party Identity and the Evaluation of Political Candidates

Acknowledgments 1. Examining Identity in Sports Media - Andrew C. Billings, Heather L. Hundley 2. The Rene Portland Case: New Homophobia and Heterosexism in Women's Sports Coverage - Marie Hardin, Erin Whiteside 3. Exploring the Influence of Mediated Beauty: Competitive Female Athletes' Perceptions of Ideal Beauty in Athletes and Other Women - Kim L. Bissell 4. Making Masculinity and Framing Femininity: FIFA, Soccer, and World Cup Web Sites - Lindsay Mean 5. Gendered Sports Dirt: Interrogating Sex and the Single Beer Commercial - Lawrence A. Wenner 6. Hegemonic Masculinity and the Rogue Warrior: Lance Armstrong as (Symbolic) American - Bryan E. Denham, Andrea Duke 7. Do You Believe in Nationalism? American Patriotism in Miracle - Michael L. Butterworth 8. The Whiteness of Sport Media/Scholarship - Mary G. McDonald 9. A Content Analysis of Racial Representations of NBA Athletes on Sports Illustrated Magazine Covers, 1970-2003 - Benjamin D. Goss, Andrew L. Tyler, Andrew C. Billings 10. Sporting Images of Disability: Murderball and the Rehabilitation of Masculine Identity - James L. Cherney, Kurt Lindemann 11. The Effects of Outcome of Mediated and Live Sporting Events on Sports Fans' Self- and Social Identities - Jennings Bryant, R. Glenn Cummins 12. The Institutional(ized) Nature of Identity in and Around Sport(s) - Kelby K. Halone Index About the Editors About the Contributors

This chapter applies social identity analysis to social capital theory in order to explain trust and conflict in social networks. It reformulates Putnam's bridging-bonding social capital distinction in terms of the relational social identities-categorical social identities distinction, and represents individuals as socially embedded by explaining them in social identity terms. The goal of the argument is to show how an individual-social group dynamic which social identity theory examines interacts with a conflict-trust dynamic which social capital theory examines. Different types of individual motivation are linked to different social capital-social identity forms. Social group conflict is explained in connection with social psychology's stigma identity-threat model. Individual response to identity conflict is explained in terms of cognitive dissonance reduction.

Background: Evidence-based hospital antimicrobial stewardship interventions, such as postprescription review with feedback, prior authorization, and handshake stewardship, involve communication between stewards and frontline prescribers. Hierarchy, asymmetric responsibility, prescribing etiquette, and autonomy can obstruct high-quality communication in stewardship. Little is known about the strategies that stewards use to overcome these barriers. The objective of this study was to identify how stewards navigate communication challenges when interacting with prescribers. Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with antimicrobial stewards recruited from hospitals across the United States. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a flexible coding approach and the framework method. Social identity theory and role theory were used to interpret framework matrices. Results: Interviews were conducted with 58 antimicrobial stewards (25 physicians and 33 pharmacists) from 10 hospitals (4 academic medical centers, 4 community hospitals, and 2 children’s hospitals). Respondents who felt empowered in their interactions with prescribers explicitly adopted a social identity that conceptualized stewards and prescribers as being on the “same team” with shared goals (in-group orientation). Drawing on the meaning conferred via this social role identity, respondents engaged in communication strategies to build and maintain common bonds with prescribers. These strategies included moderating language to minimize defensive recommendations when delivering stewardship recommendations, aligning the goals of stewardship with the goals of the clinical team, communicating with prescribers about things other than stewardship, compromising for the sake of future interactions, and engaging in strategic face-to-face interaction. Respondents who felt less empowered in their interactions thought of themselves as outsiders to the clinical team and experienced a heightened sense of “us versus them” mentality with the perception that stewards primarily serve a gate-keeping function (ie, outgroup orientation). These respondents expressed deference to hierarchy, a reluctance to engage in face-to-face interaction, a feeling of cynicism about the impact of stewardship, and a sense of low professional accomplishment within the role. Respondents who exhibited an in-group orientation were more likely than those who did not to describe the positive impact of stewardship mentors or colleagues on their social role identity. Conclusions: The way antimicrobial stewards perceive their role and identity within the social context of their healthcare organization influences how they approach communication with prescribers. Social role identity in stewardship is shaped by the influence of mentors and colleagues, indicating the importance of supportive relationships for the development of steward skill and confidence.Funding: NoDisclosures: None

Past treatments of immigration and ethnicity (and of the relationship between them) tend to ignore processes by which the effects of history and social structure occur at the individual level. Many scholars call for social psychological analyses that show how history and macro-social features of the environment produce individual modes of adaptation to immigration, including the construction and reconstruction of ethnicity as one of the modes. We use a social psychological analysis to tie macro-social characteristics to micro-social characteristics of immediate social contexts to examine how two groups of Mexicans in the United States—Mexicanos and Chicanos—differ in their social identities and in their cultural adaptations. Our results from the analyses of the data in the National Chicano Survey indicate that, as predicted by social identity theory, the differences in the structural and historical conditions experienced by immigrants and ethnics result in a more differentiated identity structure for Chicanos than for Mexicanos. The content of the social identities of the two groups also shows important differences according to outgroup comparisons through mastery of the English language. Also consistent with social identity theory, the most problematic social identities—for example, class and race—are the most psychologically powerful in determining cultural adaptations for both groups. In conclusion, differences between immigrants and ethnics are largely the outcome of shifts in reference groups as they compare themselves to a wider array of people who either promote acceptance of devalued social categorizations or in feelings of discontent about one's social identity.

System justification theory (SJT) is a thriving field of research, wherein the primary questions revolve around why individuals and groups are motivated to see the systems they depend on as just, fair, and legitimate. This article seeks to answer how accurate the postulates of SJT are when compared to competing self‐interest claims of social identity and social dominance theory. We addressed the ongoing debates among proponents of each theory by identifying who, when, and why individuals decide to system‐justify. We used data comprised of 24,009 participants nested within 42 countries. Multilevel models largely supported the competing claims of social dominance and social identity theories over SJT. The most robust findings were: (1) greater objective socioeconomic status (SES) was associated with greater system justification; (2) the consistent positive relationship between subjective SES and system justification was partially mediated by life satisfaction; and (3) both ends of the political spectrum were willing to system‐justify more when the political party they favored was in power. The results presented are used to discuss both the current state and the future directions for system justification research.

PurposeDespite the utility of social identity and social climate theories in explaining individual and group behaviour within organizations, little research has been conducted on how these approaches interconnect to explain the way high-performance work systems (HPWSs) may increase job performance. This study extends one’s understanding of the human resource management (HRM)–performance relationship by examining the interconnections between these disparate social approaches within the Chinese banking context.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on a sample of 561 employees working across 62 bank branches in China, the authors test four hypotheses: (1) HPWS is positively related to social climate; (2) social climate mediates the relationship between HPWS and social identification; (3) psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between social identification and job performance; and (4) social climate, social identification and psychological empowerment sequentially mediate the relationship between HPWS and job performance. Data were collected over two waves and job (in-role) performance was rated by managers.FindingsThe authors confirm the four hypotheses. Social climate, social identification and psychological empowerment sequentially mediate the relationship between HPWS and job performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contains some limitations. First, the authors’ research sites were focussed on one main region in state-owned banks in China. Second, this study examined only one industry with a relatively homogeneous workforce (i.e. relatively young and highly educated employees).Practical implicationsHPWS may translate into individual performance through a supportive social climate in which staff identify themselves with their work team. This suggests that organizations should pay close attention to understanding how their HPWS system can foster a strong social climate to enhance employee identification at the work group level. Second, as the nature of work is becoming increasingly more complex and interdependent, enabling not just individuals but also work groups to function effectively, it is critical for departments and work groups to promote a collective understanding of HRM messages with shared values and goals.Originality/valueThis research contributes towards a more comprehensive understanding of the HRM–performance chain as a complex social process underpinned by social identity theory. The authors demonstrate that social identification and social climate both play an important role in explaining how HPWS positively affects psychological empowerment and subsequent job performance.

New York is Blue and White: Social Identity and Ritual at NYCFC

Social identity theory holds that individuals derive their self‐concept from knowledge of their membership in a group (or groups) and that they place value and emotional significance on that group membership, with resulting perceptual and attitudinal biases. Individuals favor the in‐group to which they belong which they define against a relevant out‐group. In this study, a partisan social identity scale was used to reinterpret perceptual features of partisanship through the lens of social identity theory. The social identity of political independents was also examined in an effort to explain the anomalous behavior and identity of partisan leaners. Social identity theory provided a viable alternative framework for understanding the common bipolarity of perceptions regarding the two major U.S. political parties. In addition, an independent social identification may, in part, explain the identity of partisan leaners.

This study explores how FoMO fosters sports fan attachment and enhances team identification in the context of online sports fandom. Grounded in social capital theory and social identity theory, this paper investigates how sports fans’ experiences with FoMO activate socially driven behaviors, particularly social media involvement, which build attachment to sports and deepen team identification. An online survey of 451 U.S. based participants revealed that FoMO strongly correlates to social media involvement, which in turn enhances sports attachment and team identification; additionally, a moderating effect was observed among sports fans with moderate to high levels of bridging social capital, suggesting that fans with broader weak-tie networks gain more from FoMO-driven engagement. These findings reframe FoMO as a prosocial motivator within digital fan communities. The research also provides theoretical insights into FoMO’s role in identity-building and recommends practical approaches for sports organizations to boost long-term fan engagement.