Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Team identification refers to an individual’s psychological connection to a team or athlete (Wann, 2006a), while rival salience involves awareness of a prominent rival team (Wann & James, 2019). This study examined the relationship between sport team identification and perceptions of a state housing a salient rival, specifically whether identification with the University of Kentucky (UK) men’s basketball team influenced perceptions of Tennessee, home to rival team University of Tennessee (UT). It was hypothesized that greater team identification would be associated with more negative evaluations of Tennessee, and that this relationship would be mediated by perceptions of the rival team. Contrary to initial expectations, correlation analyses revealed no significant direct relationship between UK identification and negative perceptions of Tennessee. However, mediation analysis demonstrated a significant suppression effect: UK identification was associated with more favorable direct perceptions of Tennessee, but also with more negative perceptions of UT, which in turn predicted more negative evaluations of Tennessee. Thus, negative perceptions of the rival team diminished the positive association between team identification and views of Tennessee.

Year manuscript completed

2025

Year degree awarded

2025

Author's Keywords

Team Identification, Sport Rivalry, Perception, In-group Bias

Degree Awarded

Master of Science

Department

Psychology

College/School

College of Humanities and Fine Arts

Thesis Advisor

Daniel Wann

Committee Chair

Jana Hackathorn

Committee Member

David Eaton

Committee Member

Patrick Cushen

Document Type

Thesis

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