Applying Expectancy Violation Theory to Negative Responses to Colin Kaepernick’s NFL Protests: A Qualitative Study

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  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Take a Knee: Colin Kaepernick and Sports Activism

Abstract

Colin Kaepernick, previously an American Football player, is a controversial figure in the United States (US). As a sports celebrity, Kaepernick, in 2016, stepped beyond his normal role as a football player to silently and peacefully protest the police brutality of African Americans by not standing during the ritualistic national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, which normally precedes the start of a football game. Although peaceful, Kaepernick’s protests, to many spectators and media outlets, was perceived as an affront to American citizens, the US military, and the US flag. Subsequently, Kaepernick was ridiculed and condemned by critics, labeling him anti-American, disrespectful, hateful, and insulting, among many other ad hominems launched at his person. The research contributes to literature by exploring and illuminating, through a social psychological lens, factors influencing the negative responses to Kaepernick’s protests. Specifically, this research employs expectancy violation theory in investigating the harsh responses to Kaepernick. Given that Kaepernick, a sports celebrity, and spectators of the NFL protests represent a parasocial relationship, in the minds of many spectators, Kaepernick violated the expectations of this relationship, explicitly committing social and moral expectancy violations. Utilizing a content analysis of twenty comments from the comment forums of two major politically conservative and two politically liberal online news media outlets, this study finds that, to some spectators, Kaepernick did, indeed, violate their social and moral expectations in protesting during the national anthem.

Author

• Randon Taylor, University of Miami