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Attribution theory focuses on the fundamental need for people to explain the underlying causes of important event outcomes (Weiner, 1985). From a sport perspective, it has been determined that fans and athletes tend to attribute wins to internal, stable, and controllable factors and losses to external, unstable, and uncontrollable factors. This phenomenon is known as the team-serving bias. Previous research in this area has been limited to single game assessments and has yet to examine the impact of an entire season. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the moderating impact of team identification on the attributional bias of two groups of sport team fans that experienced opposite seasonal outcomes. The 2011-2012 seasons' of New York Jets and New York Giants were examined. Four internal and three external attributes were devised based on the work of Wann and Dolan (2002). The results suggested the seasonal impact of success/failure followed previous theory for internal attribution, but not for external. In addition, the impact of team identification was not statistically significant. The discussion provides implications as well as study limitations and suggestions for future research.
Being a fan in today's media saturated sport marketplace can be an emotional roller coaster, and often times, the conclusion of the season can be most maddening. From front office firings and coaching changes to ring ceremonies and White House visits, media commentators and pundits overreact to any number of seasonal outcomes (Lewis & Proffitt, 2012; Reese, 2001). From a fan's perspective, making sense of a successful or unsuccessful season not only influences one's relationship with the team, but also impacts one's selfand social identity. Previous research in this area has recognized internal and external attribution and team identification as important factors within a sport fan's affective, cognitive, and behavioral response to team success and failure (Wann & Dolan, 1994; Wann & Schrader, 2000). However, these studies have been limited to single game outcomes and have not examined the impact of attributable factors for an entire season. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the moderating impact of team identification on the attributional bias of two groups of sport team fans that experienced opposite seasonal outcomes (success/ failure). The following sections outline the importance of this area of...