Sport and Trust: the Impact of National Soccer Teams on Individual Trust in Others

• In Event: 156 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Cultural Approaches to Globalization

Abstract

Previous research has shown how sports participation can be a useful outlet for an individual to meet and compete with people of different backgrounds he or she perhaps would not normally come into contact with. Membership in a sports organization can take this a step further by providing an individual with the opportunity to have more frequent contact with persons of different backgrounds. An additional benefit of this potential exposure to diverse groups is the possibility for an individual to develop higher levels of trust in others. While sport participation helps increase social connectedness between individuals, perhaps a country’s national sports team, and in particular their national soccer team, can provide similar benefits. Soccer is a sport that is played and spectated by hundreds of millions of people across the world; if there is one sport that could globally bring the world together, it may be soccer. Using data from Wave 6 (2010-2014) of the World Values Survey (WVS) as well as national soccer team data gathered from fifa.com, this study examines how an individual’s level of trust in other groups of people is affected by a country’s national soccer team. In particular, this study focuses on how the amount of matches a country’s national team has competed in during one calendar year affects individual-level trust. The main finding of this study is that an individual’s trust in others is significantly higher for those living in countries whose national soccer team competes in more matches.

Author

• Adriene Francois Davis, Mississippi State University