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Previous research examining the hostile and instrumental verbal aggression of sport fans had found that these outbursts were more common among highly identified fans (Wann, Carlson, et al. 1999; Wann et al., 2000). The current study expanded on the previous efforts by incorporating fan dysfunction into the design. Participants attended a Division I men's basketball game and completed a post-game questionnaire assessing their identification with the local team, fan dysfunction, and the hostile and instrumental aggression they had directed toward officials and opponents. The results indicated that both identification and dysfunction were positive predictors of both total aggression and instrumental aggression. However, only dysfunction predicted hostile aggression.
The violent and aggressive actions of attendees at sporting events have been of interest to sport scientists for many decades (Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001). From a theoretical perspective, it is useful to frame sport spectator violence within the General Aggression Model (GAM; Anderson, 1997; Anderson, Anderson, & Deuser, 1996). The GAM predicts that situational and personal input variables impact three critical psychophysiological states: affect, arousal, and cognition. The psychophysiological states then serve as antecedents to aggression. Research examining sport fan violence is supportive of Anderson's model (Wann, 2006). For example, both situational variables such as modeling the aggressive actions of athletes (Russell, 1981) and the presence of aggressive cues (Wann & Branscombe, 1990) as well as personal variables including intoxication (Wann et al., 2001) have been found to play a role in spectator aggression. Furthermore, research indicates that the psychophysiological states are related to the aggressive actions of sport fans (e.g., Bramscombe & Wann, 1992a, 1992b; Frank & Gilovich, 1988; Wann & Branscombe, 1990; Wann, Dolan, McGeorge, & Allison, 1994).
The current investigation was designed to further our understanding of two important personal input variables related to the aggressive actions of sport spectators: team identification and fan dysfunction. Team identification is commonly defined as the extent to which a fan feels a psychological connection with a team (Wann et al., 2001). Highly identified fans feel a strong allegiance to their team and the team's successes and failures are felt as their own. A large body of literature has examined the impact of team identification on spectator aggression (see Dietz-Uhler & Lanter, 2008; Warm, 2006) and...