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Origins and antecedents of sport fandom and team identification have been targeted by researchers for several decades. The current pair of studies investigated gender differences in relationship-based origins (desire to originally follow a team or sport to help establish and maintain connections with others) and recognition-based origins (aspiration to be known or perceived as a fan of a particular team or sport). Study 1 (N = 147) revealed that women were more likely than men to endorse relationship-based origins for identifying with a team and that both genders were more likely to endorse recognition-based origins than relationship-based. Study 2 (N = 148) revealed that women were more likely than men to report originally becoming sport fans for relationship-based reasons. Both men and women were more likely to report becoming a fan (both in general and of a favored sport) for relationship-based reasons than for recognition-based reasons.
In recent decades, sport scientists from a number of disciplines have shown an increased interest in the antecedents of sport team identification (the extent to which a fan feels a psychological connection to a team, Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001). Wann (2006a) developed a typology in which antecedents were classified as psychological, environmental, or team-related. Psychological antecedents involve basic psycho-social needs and include the need for belonging/affiliation (Donavan, Carlson, Zimmerman, 2005; Gwinner& Swanson, 2003; James, Kolbe, & Trail, 2002; Pritchard, Stinson, & Patton, 2010) and the need for distinctiveness (Dimmock & Gucciardi, 2008; Hyatt & Andrijiw, 2008). Environmental antecedents focus on the fan's surroundings. Thus, factors such as one's socialization into fandom (James, 2001; Kolbe & James, 2003), the presence of rivals (Luellen & Wann, 2010), living in close proximity to the team (Jones, 1997; Wann, Tucker, & Schrader, 1996), and the team's stadium (Swyers, 2005; Underwood, Bond, & Baer, 2001) are best classified as environmental causes. Team-related reasons focus on the team and players. These include perceived similarity with the team (e.g., fans' beliefs that they share commonalities with the players and have similar attitudes, see Aden & Titsworth, 2012; Fisher, 1998; Pritchard et ah, 2010), player attributes (Nelson, 2004), and the team's history (Boyle & Magnusson, 2007; Kolbe & James, 2003).
Gender Differences in Antecedents to Team Identification
Although major advances have been established in...