Understanding of the Identities and Behaviours of Football Fans - Essay Example

Topic: With reference to theory and contemporary research, evaluate the contribution that psychologists can make to an understanding of the identities and behaviours of football fans. Introduction Humans being have long been fascinated by sporting spectacles. The emperors of ancient Rome hardly needed social psychologists to explain the value of investing in the construction of the coliseum. The world's greatest amphitheatre, larger even than Wembley Arena, was built in the first century AD by the Flavian emperors as a gift to the citizens of Rome. With a capacity for over 50000 spectators, the coliseum was renowned for its architectural grandeur and for the cruelty of the bloody spectacles presented there. For its dedication in the year 80 AD, Emperor Titus staged one hundred days of games, hunting and gladiatorial fights designed to gain social consensus from the nobility and to distract the public from more serious political issues. (Pepe 2008) Stadiums have not changed much. The amphitheatre form serves as well now as in ancient times. But the games are slightly less bloody and our understanding of spectator sports has changed. Thanks in part to the contribution of psychologists and other social scientists we can identify factors influencing crowd behaviours in general, as well as traits that seem to typify football fans in particular. Football: Social and Historical Perspective According to the University of Leicester Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research, an estimated 4-5 million people attend a football match in England and Wales every year (University of Leicester 2001). Internationally, football is an extremely popular sport with substantial socio-economic impact. A career in football is often seen as the only way to escape the poverty and degradation in rural and slum areas. In developed nations, football players and trainers earn multimillion figures and enjoy celebrity status. The commercial potential of the game is exploited by various multinational companies. The makers of one brand of soft drink (Coca cola) broadcast advertisements illustrating the unifying potential of football. The ads show everything coming to a halt as a radio commentator describes a national footballer approaching the goal area and scoring. The commentator shouts "goal!" (in whatever language), a cactus hugs a balloon at a bar, a mad scientist hugs a not yet dissected rat in the laboratory, a woodsman hugs a half-chopped tree, and a woman's slick Latin lover jumps out of the closet and hugs her pot-bellied, beer guzzling husband. Yet, the popular understanding of behaviours associated with football fans is not always as positive as the ad campaign suggests. As early as the end of the nineteenth century there were records of "roughs" causing trouble at football games. In the 1960s hooliganism was first identified as a serious social problem which became a deterrent for fans attending matches (University of Leicester 2001). The level of conflict and violence associated with football fans and rivals varies considerably. There seems to have been a decline in the rate of violent incidences associated with football fans over past decades (University of Leicester 2001). Oxford psychologist Peter Marsh questioned the validity of some assumptions regarding football fan behaviour, describing the "sensational media coverage" and "diatribes of moral entrepreneurs" with some scepticism (Marsh 1977). He cited headlines like "Soccer fans behave like animals" or "soccer fans worse than animals" as examples of how football fans may be "demoted from the human race" and inspire "the absurd rhetoric of outrage and vilification". But other researchers are critical of Marsh's conclusions that football fan behaviour is mostly ritualistic and non-violent, following certain "rules of disorder" and that accidental breakdown into real violence is aggravated by inappropriate intervention (Marsh 1978 cited in University of Leicester 2001). Crowd Behaviour and Theories of Identification A manic housewife on a closed psychiatric ward might challenge the values and standards applied in defining normal, socially accepted behaviour. She may ask why crowds of men in football stadiums are allowed to roar, scream, wave colourful banners and chant, whereas she gets locked away for a harmless bit of screaming and tossing a few clothes out the window when the mood takes her. It may seem crazy to non-participants, but football is generally accepted as an "appropriate venue" for all manner of "aggressive rivalries, stereotypically associated with working class roots and traditions of intrinsically territorial masculine behaviour". The football match is "symbolic of social struggle" (University of Leister 2001). Gustave Le Bon, French social psychologist, a pioneer in propaganda and self-proclaimed founder of crowd psychology, referred to the clich of the irrational crowd current in the 19th century (Wikepedia 2007). Le Bon developed the theory of the "group mind" contending that the individual self was occluded by the emergence of the group mind when submerged in a crowd (Le Bon 1895, trans 1947; cited in Stott 2001). In contrast, Floyd Henry Allport suggests that "the individual in the crowd behaves just as he would have alone, only more so" (Allport 1924 cited in Wozniak 1997). Thus "crowd behavior entails the social facilitation of participants' dominant responses" (Allport 1924 cited in Stott et al. 2001), implying that football crowds offer the "opportunity for certain types to converge and act out pre-existing dispositions". (Stott et al. 2001). Sociological approaches such as those of Dunning et al. at the University of Leicester emphasise the relevance of lower class male socialisation in their analysis of football fan behaviour (Dunning et al. 1994 cited by Stott et al. 2001). Ian Taylor on the other hand describes a wealthier, more casual brand of hooligan where masculinity and not class seems to be the main issue (University of Leicester 2001). Stott, Hutchinson and Drury (2001) describe Kerr's (1994) definition of another facet of hooligan behaviour based less on class and more on psychological theory. Hooligans are considered individuals with an abnormal need for arousal not met by their activities of daily living. The resultant motivational deficiency can be assuaged by hooligan activity which produces a pleasurable emotional state. Kerr's arousal model integrates both the structural aspects of the Leicester school's model (social deprivation would tend to induce states of under-stimulation) and the individual dispositional aspects of the Allport theory. As is often the case in the nature vs. nurture type of debates the truth probably lies in a combination of factors. Or more appropriately: "the data support [self-categorization theory's]contention that stereotyping and group processes are fundamentally interlinked and that neither can be properly understood in isolation from the dynamics of the surrounding intergroup context" (Stott & Drury 2004). According to the Social Categorization Theory (SCT), self is defined in a social context and can vary as the context changes. Applying SCT to crowd behaviour, Reicher (1996, 1997) proposed a Social Identity Model (SIDE) describing a shift from separate individual identity to a common social identity redefined by a crowd. Individual behaviour is thus defined by norms pertaining to the reference points of the crowd. The SIDE reflects a greater degree of differentiation than Le Bon's theory of primitive and indiscriminate crowd behaviour. Further refinement of the concept came with the Elaborated Social Identity Model of Crowd Behaviour (ESIM; Drury & Reicher, 2000; Reicher, 1996; Stott & Drury, 1999; Stott & Drury, 2000; Stott & Reicher, 1998 cited in Stott, Hutchinson and Drury 2001). Hooligans and Football Fan Research Proponents of the feminist perspective agree that sexism remains an integral part of football, despite the rise of women's football on the international scene in recent years. And the profile of the hooligan offender is typically accepted to be male, late teens to early twenties (a few 'leaders excepted), engaged in manual labour, lower clerical occupations, the "grey" economy or unemployed (Dunning et al. 1988 cited in University of Leicester 2001). Hooliganism, a term created by the media, has no formal legal definition. But the Football Offences and Disorders Bill of 1999 defines offences of disorderly behaviour: throwing missiles toward the pitch, or spectators, indecent or racialist chanting, and intrusion, or entering the pitch without lawful authority. It also prescribes sanctions such as the Domestic and International Football Banning Orders designed to exclude known hooligans from attending matches at home and abroad. Armstrong (1998) says that essentially ... "football hooliganism involves [...] the participants taking upon themselves various roles and identities", and cites Schlesinger's (1991) argument that identity is continually constructed and reconstructed. Crucial to the cohesion of the identity "Us" is the construction of the identity of "Them" or "Other". It is often unclear how this "Other" is defined. But as Armstrong points out, quoting Goffman 1975: "self, a combination of character and performance, is a changeable formula". Giulianotti (2002) advances "four ideal types of spectator identity: supporters, followers, fans, and flneurs. He notes "the broad trend in sports identification is away from the supporter model (with its hot, traditional identification with local clubs) and toward the more detached, cool, consumer-orientated identification of the flneur". Qualitative studies like the one by Stott, Hutchinson and Drury at the 1998 World Cup Finals in France allow a deeper understanding of the complexly interconnected factors that influence behaviour of soccer fans (Stott et al. 2001). Their study differs from previous ones; it explores the collective identities of two groups instead of one, and identifies factors associated with the absence of conflict as well as its incidence, presenting a more comprehensive approach to the phenomenon of football fan behaviour. The 1998 France study seeks explanations for how and why "violence in the context of football becomes a crowd behaviour". It dispels the myth of football violence confined to certain hooligans and elucidates factors that facilitate the process of violent behaviour and conflict escalation. Interviewee quotes like "Scots don't want no trouble and never get no trouble," and "I don't normally fight over football. I don't normally fight over anything. I'm not that sort of person that fights. But you shouldn't have to take that (provocation by rivals), you know. They were there to wind us up" possess an aspect of self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps psychologist's research findings can change expectations and thus influence behavioural outcomes in and outside the football arena Conclusion The Social Issues Research Centre notes that "contributors to Giulianotti's "cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, pluralist" volume reach the unremarkable conclusion that a nation's football culture is " indicative of a given society's cognition of existential, moral and political fundamentals". In other words, football is as good an indicator of social development as any other. The state of the game is intricately connected to the state of the nation. "Effective policies are urgently needed if the great social invention of football is to be protected from the serious threat posed by a combination of hooligan fans, complacent politicians and money-grabbing owners, managers and players" warns Eric Dunning (2000). Through continuing research, psychologists can provide evidence based guidance to help develop preventive measures, train police to make better decisions regarding interventions, and influence policy-makers and media to create more positive expectations and reinforcement of desired behaviour. Appendix: Source material Armstrong, G., 1998. Football Hooligans: Knowing the Score--Explorations in Anthropology. Oxford: Berg. Dunning, E., 2000. Towards a Sociological Understanding of Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon . European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, [Online]. 8( 2), p.141. Available at [Accessed 22 April 2008] Football Offences and Disorder Bill 1999. London. HMSO Available at [Accessed 22 April 2008]. Giulianotti, R., 2002. Supporters, followers, fans and flaneurs: A taxonomy of spectator identities in football. Journal of sport and social issues, [Online]26 (1), pp.25-46. Available at >[Accessed 22 April 2008] Marsh, P., 1977. Football Hooliganism: Fact or Fiction British Journal of Law and Society,[Online] 4 (2), pp. 256-259. Available at [Accessed 22 April 2008] Pepe, Andrea, his son Daniele and his wife Catherine McElwee, The Closseum. Available at [Accessed 22 April 2008] Stott, C., Hutchinson, P., & Drury, J., 2001. 'Hooligans' abroad Inter-group dynamics, social identity and participation in collective 'disorder' at the 1998 World Cup Finals. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 359-384. Stott, C., Drury, J., 2004. The importance of social interaction in stereotype consensus and content: is the whole greater than the sum of its parts European Journal of Social Psychology, [Online] 34 (1), pp. 11-23. Available at [Accessed 22 April 2008] Social Issues Research Centre. Cross-national variations in football violence in Europe. Available at [Accessed 22 April 2008] University of Leicester Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research, 2001. Fact Sheet 1: Football and football hooliganism. Available at [Accessed 22 April 2008] Wikepedia 2007. Crowd Psychology. Available at > [Accessed 22 April 2008] Wozniak, R. H., 1997. Floyd Henry Allport and the Social Psychology. Bryn Mawr College. Available at> [Accessed 22 April 2008] Read More