Differentiating Objective Sport Knowledge Versus Subjective Sport Fanship via a Test of Exemplification in Sport Media

Abstract

Recognizing the need for a more nuanced measure of sport fanship, this study utilizes an experiment to better understand the construct of sport fanship, comparing a common sport fanship measure and an adapted, objective measure of sport knowledge. This experiment also extends exemplification theory into the novel context of sports media by examining how one individual difference—domain-specific knowledge and interest in the subject—influences perceptions formed through a common message type, a sports highlight reel. Exemplification effects in the form of exaggerated football plays did indeed alter perceptions of the athlete despite concrete sport statistics depicting the athlete modestly. Interestingly, while the two concepts were positively correlated, they did not act uniformly. High knowledge sports fans were less swayed by exaggerated sports highlight exemplars when compared to their low knowledge counterparts while high and low fans categorized by self-identified interest did not affect the perceptions of the on-screen athlete. Thus, this study contributes to current research by expanding exemplification theory and furthering the multidimensional operational understanding of sport fanship. Additional findings and future research directions are discussed.

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