Identification means figuring out what group someone feels they belong to or what type of person they see themselves as (Schlenker, 1986). This happens when they categorize themselves based on cultural values and how their family and friends behave and think (Collins & Russell, 1991). In sports, team identification is a fascinating topic. It means feeling like a dedicated fan of a specific sports team. When someone identifies strongly with a team, they emotionally connect with it, and their self-esteem becomes linked to being part of that group. Researchers have found that being a committed fan can lead to strong emotions while watching games (Wann et al., 2002), in group bias (Wann & Grieve, 2010) and feeling more connected to others who support the same team (Wann et al., 2017).
Collins, W. A., & Russell, G. (1991). Mother-child and father- child relationships in middle childhood and adolescence: A developmental analysis. Developmental Review, 11(2), 99 136.
Schlenker, B. (1986). Self-identification: Toward an integration of the private and public self. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public Self and Private Self (pp. 21 62). New York: Springer.
Wann, D. L., & Grieve, F. G. (2010). Biased evaluations of in- group and out-group spectator behavior at sporting events: The importance of team identification and threats to social identity. Journal of Social Psychology, 145(5), 531 546.
Wann, D. L., Hackathorn, J., & Sherman, M. R. (2017). Testing the team identification social psychological health model: Mediational relationships among team identification, sport fandom, sense of belonging, and meaning in life. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 21(2), 94 107.
Wann, D. L., Royalty, J. L., & Rochelle, A. R. (2002). Using motivation and identification to predict sport fans’ emotional responses to team performance. Journal of Sport Behavior, 25(2), 207 216.
