The World Cup is not just an excellent time for a nation to come together; it is also an opportunity to see some fascinating psychology in action! Intense sports fandom sparks positive and negative responses, particularly during a globally renowned event. Watching sports can release hormones that facilitate social bonding, and fandom has been found to be good for your health. Humans crave community, and the sense of belonging that stems from joining a team can enhance mental well-being and give meaning to one’s life. The national identification that occurs when supporting one’s country can even work to improve a person’s overall well-being and sense of belonging.

Social Identity Theory

The sheer magnitude of the World Cup means that its impact can spread far and wide, often more so than other sporting events. In the World Cup, a country’s team acts as a stand-in for the country itself, heavily strengthening the viewer’s national identity. Social Identity theory suggests that our social identity in a certain situation differs depending on context and salience. We act differently depending on which one of our social identities is active. A person’s salient social identity is the identity that comes into play in a specific situation. For example, you may act differently and professionally when your “accountant” identity is salient compared to your rowdier “England fan” identity.

According to social identity theory, our capacity to self-categorise in terms of a social identity allows us to act as group members. During the World Cup, our social identity as, say, ‘England fans’ means we display behaviours attributed to that group. As a result, we tend to favour the ‘ingroup’ (those who support our team) and tend to be less nice towards those in the ‘outgroup’ (those who support opposing teams). Even the simple fact of not sharing our identity is enough for us to dislike them. Since we are strong supporters of our country during the World Cup, our social identity as a member of our nation becomes particularly salient. We actively want to view our team as more favourable than the others, which can be explained by positive distinctiveness. Social identity theory explains why even those not usually interested in football suddenly engage with the sport and feel proud of their country and its team.

Positive Distinctiveness

Once we have categorised ourselves as members of a group and defined ourselves in terms of that social categorisation, we want to maintain our self-esteem by differentiating the ‘ingroup’ (our team) positively from the comparison ‘outgroup’ (another team). This is known as achieving positive distinctiveness. When we define ourselves by our social identity (‘we’ and ‘us’), we view ‘us’ as being different and better than the outgroup to feel good about ourselves and our accomplishments. Even though we may perceive our competitors as more skilled during the World Cup, we may protect our positive distinctiveness throughout the tournament and compensate for a lower match score by claiming that the opponents played ‘dirty’.

Deindividuation

Acting as a member of our group can result in and reinforce certain behaviours and attitudes about our country; however, these may not always be positive. People often cheer and act differently in the presence of other fans than when another identity is salient (e.g. their work identity); this can be explained by deindividuation. Deindividuation means that we may act in a way that is a norm of the group (football fans) at the expense of our own norms and values. Individuals may be more likely to cheer, swear and can even be led to violence when they believe they’re a faceless member of the crowd. Especially likely when everyone is wearing the same football shirts supporting their country at the World Cup. The rationale is that by acting as a member of the group, they believe they won’t be held accountable for their actions. 

However, adopting group norms doesn’t always result in negativity. All you have to do is look at the Japanese fans cleaning up their litter even after suffering a loss to see how adopting a social identity can create prosocial behaviours too. Shared social identity is the basis for mutual social influence. When we see ourselves as sharing group membership with others, we are motivated to carry out behaviours and activities that match that identity, whether that behaviour is good or bad!

The Underdog Effect

Morocco made it to the semi-final, the first time an African team has made the semi-finals of the world cup. I am not Moroccan, nor do I have Moroccan friends, but why did we want them to succeed against the reigning champions? This phenomenon is known as the Underdog Effect. When an unlikely team does better than expected, they gain a lot of support. People root for them to win and defeat the bigger (more prepared) side. The underdog’s effort (and our perception of it) leads us to view the underdog even more favourably. Psychological theory also says that if we see hope and success in tough conditions, we are motivated to believe that we may also triumph at something hard.

From shouting a bit louder at matches to backing the underdog and even helping a fellow supporter clean the stadium. The psychology behind the behaviours and attitudes we see can impact football fans in all kinds of ways – let’s hope the final doesn’t get too Messi!