Expertise or Involvement: How Does Fandom Effect Information Processing of Sports Entertainment?

• In Event: Research Exploring Individual Differences

Abstract

The assumption of the influence of fan preferences on the perception and evaluation of the gameplay can be traced back to the work of Hastorf and Cantril (1954) who examined the perception of college football games in a field study. According to Hastorf and Cantril, the memory of gameplay differed, depending on fan involvement, due to the fan groups’ divergent perception of actions as socially relevant "events" (p. 132). In a preliminary study (2013), we were able to show cognitive processing of a live soccer-broadcast did not differ between fan-groups of different soccer teams. However, this research revealed interesting findings in regard of fans’ information processing, especially, in regard of perception and memorization accuracy (hindsight bias). We assumed that what defines a fan in contrast to non-fans is less an affective involvement effect but rather an effect of fans’ game-expertise, thus, a cognitive (working memory-based) aspect of information processing.

Authors

• Tino GK Meitz, University of Tuebingen

• Markus Huff, U of Tuebingen

• Claudia Wilhelm, U of Erfurt

• Aileen Oeberst, Knowledge Media Research Center

• Frank Papenmeier, U of Tuebingen

• Annika Maurer, U of Tuebingen

• Stephan Schwan, Knowledge Media Research Center