In this study, I examined whether the extent to which television viewers are fans of sports and their motivation for viewing sports affected judgments of anti-social behaviors demonstrated by athletes. The uses and gratifications theoretical framework guided exploration of possible predictors. The sample (n = 347) consisted of undergraduate students from two midwestern universities. Several instruments were used in this study. The questionnaire included measures of fandom, motives for watching televised sports (i.e., entertaining relaxation, etc.), affinity for watching televised sports, intention to watch televised sports, activities during exposure to televised sports, involvement with televised sports, exposure to televised sports, parasocial interaction with athletes, identification with athletes, and judgments of athlete behaviors (i.e., violent crime, drug use, forging checks/failing to keep promises, and uncharitable/dishonest behaviors).
Results showed that fandom correlated significantly with affinity, motives, intention, involvement, exposure, parasocial interaction, and identification. Fandom was negatively related to judgments of violent crime behaviors and uncharitable/dishonest behaviors. Fandom was not related to judgments of drug use or forging checks. Results suggested that people who reported greater fandom were less likely than their counterparts to judge violent crime and uncharitable/dishonest behaviors negatively.
Separate multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the contribution of the antecedent variables to predicting each behavioral judgment factor. Results of the regression analyses suggested that women who were engaged in other activities while viewing televised sports content were more likely to judge violent crime behaviors as most wrong, or negatively. Additionally, women were more likely to judge drug use and uncharitable/dishonest behaviors as most wrong, or negatively. Path analyses provided further evidence for links between antecedents. Canonical correlation analyses suggested women who reported lower degrees of fandom, weaker affinity for televised sports, weaker intention to watch sports, weaker self-esteem/achievement and entertaining relaxation motives, and paying less attention to televised sports were the viewers who tended to judge athlete violent crime behaviors, uncharitable/dishonest behaviors, and drug and steroid use behaviors as most wrong. Implications of these findings and future directions are discussed.