Gordon W. Russell

Sport riots: A social–psychological review

This article emphasizes the social-psychological literature in a selective review of what we know about sport riots. Although the evidence is sparse, the occurrence of riots in some sports may be increasing in the short run but appears less severe when viewed against the historical record. Sets of situational, environmental, social, and cognitive variables have been shown to include factors associated with spectator violence. An individual differences approach has characterized would-be rioters as angry, physically aggressive, impulsive, sensation seeking, and antisocial. Others in a crowd who intervene as peacemakers to quell a disturbance, while unheralded, represent a large unofficial force for crowd control. Other tactics commonly used to control sports crowds involve a variety of largely untested measures.

Effects on the hostility of spectators of viewing aggressive sports.

The effects on spectator hostility of viewing aggressive athletic contests were investigated using three diverse measures of hostility in a replication of the widely cited Goldstein and Arms (1971) Army-Navy football study. Male and female subjects were exposed to either stylized aggression (professional wrestling), realistic aggression (ice hockey), or a competitive but nonaggressive control event (swimming) in a before-after design. While the three measures of hostility yielded somewhat different results for the three events, general support was found for the earlier finding of increased spectator hostility as a result of observing aggression. Whereas hostility was shown to increase at wrestling and hockey, such increases did not occur at the swimming competition. Other aspects of mood change among spectators were also investigated. There was a blunting of the quality of interpersonal relations at the three events.

Personalities in the crowd: Those who would escalate a sports riot

A series of four studies was conducted at ice hockey games with a view to establishing the correlates of spectators self-reported reasons for attending and their propensity for involvement in crowd disturbances. Spectators attending for the reason of “I like to watch the fights” and those most likely to join in a fight if one were to break out in the stands were young, single males. Ratings on the dependent variables were further related to individual differences measures of assaultiveness, psychopathy, self-esteem, and public self-consciousness. Anomy was unrelated to either dependent measure. Support for the false consensus effect was additionally forthcoming.

Machiavellianism, Locus of Control, Aggression, Performance and Precautionary Behaviour in Ice Hockey

The sport of hockey served as a setting for the investigation of the relationships between both Machiavellianism and I-E locus of control and three behavioural indices of aggression. Physical aggression, challenge to authority, and total aggression were positively related to Mach V scores and I-E locus of control, the only exception being I-E and physical aggression. Goal scoring, as a performance measure, was positively related to challenge to authority and total aggression while assists were highly correlated with all measures of aggression and I-E locus of control. Measures of precautionary behaviour were generally unrelated to the scales.

Crowd Size and Competitive Aspects of Aggression in Ice Hockey: An Archival Study

The seasons records of a Canadian ice hockey league provided the data for an investigation of aggression in relation to crowd size and competition. Crowd size was positively related to aggression in one season but not in the preceding year. Aggression increased over the three periods of game play but not across the season. League standing and the score existing during play were both significantly related to aggression. However, the aggression displayed by a team in a match was unrelated to their league standing vis a vis that of their opponents. The results are generally discussed within a frustration-aggression framework.

Predictors of sports spectators' proclivity for riotous behaviour in Finland and Canada

Male spectators (N = 178) attending hockey games in Finland and Canada provided ratings of the strength of their motives for attendance. Of six plausible reasons, liking to watch player fights was rated least important by the Finns whereas it was third in importance for Canadians. Subjects also provided information with regard to their age, fight history, the number of accompanying persons and completed a measure of sensation seeking. With the exception of the number of accompanying persons, all variables were related in both countries to subjects self-reported likelihood of escalating a crowd disturbance. The results were discussed in the context of previous findings from a series of field studies using the same paradigm.

Sympathy and Altruism in Response to Disasters

Canadian students provided ratings of the degree of sympathy they felt for those involved in each of 20 world disasters. Playing the role of taxpayer, they also apportioned monies from a disaster relief fund to assist in such emergencies. A single dimension, Culpability, was found to underlie the sympathy ratings. Sympathy was related to giving aid only in the case of female subjects. Women also expressed greater sympathy and recommended more financial aid than did men.

Peacemakers: those who would intervene to quell a sports riot

Abstract Male spectators ( N = 129) attending a Finnish ice hockey game were asked to indicate their response to a fight erupting nearby in the stands. Fully 61.1% indicated they would watch, 26.2% would try to stop the fight, 5.6% would leave the area, 4.7% would encourage the fighters and 2.4% would join in. Peacemakers were compared with onlookers and found to be less physically aggressive. However, they were equally angry, impulsive and had equivalent histories of fighting. Compared with a category of troublemakers, peacemakers were less aggressive, angry and impulsive, and were taller.

When cooler heads prevail: Peacemakers in a sports riot

Male sports fans (N = 74) were asked to estimate the likelihood that they would intervene in a crowd disturbance in an attempt to stop the fighting. They also completed a battery of measures that included their attitude toward law and order, fight history, the false consensus effect, impulsivity, psychopathy, sensation seeking, anger, physical aggression and identification with their favorite team. Law and order, body mass, anger and the false consensus effect were positively related to peacemaking whereas sensation seeking was negatively related. A multiple regression analysis yielded a solution that accounted for 32.3% of the variance with anger and attitude toward law and order emerging as the best predictors.

Some Correlates of Conceptual Complexity.

Scores on 3 measures of conceptual complexity were related to a number of biographic and demographic variables. Age, sex, GPA, and birth order were generally unrelated to complexity as were differences among formal religious denominations and Canadian political party preferences. However, complexity scores were generally lower for (1) Ss reporting religious affiliations vs non-affiliates, (2) Ss voting for a party rather than the man, (3) Ss enrolled in the Faculty of Education vs those in Arts and Science, and (4) Ss enrolled in pre-professional training programs vs those working towards the B.A. degree.