Group Display

Question 1

What is sports xenophobia?

Answer 1

Hostility and fear towards unfamiliar strangers or foreigners.

Question 2

Where is xenophobia documented in?

Answer 2

Animals displaying higher forms of social organisation

Question 3

Why might xenophobia be adaptive?

Answer 3

1) Natural selection favours genes that cause humans to be altruistic towards own group but intolerant towards others
2) Adaptive to exaggerate negative stereotypes as the over perception of threat is less costly than the under perception

Question 4

What is one positive application of research into sports xenophobia?

Answer 4

• Clubs have been motivated to take steps to minimise its influence
• Research into xenophobia has helped to eradicate violence and encourage acceptance by the understanding it has provided

Question 5

What are 2 examples of steps football clubs have taken to reduce xenophobic group displays?

Answer 5

• Germany, Bundersleague players all wore ‘my friend is a foreigner’ shirts
• Similar initiatives introduced in two Scottish Glasgow teams to address a century of sectarian bigotry

Question 6

Evidence to support the notion of xenophobia: Podaliri and Balestri

Answer 6

• Analysis of Italian football crowds

- Group displays categorised by racist chants and open anti-Semitic banners

Question 7

Additional research for xenophobia in sports displays was found by Foldesi…

Answer 7

• Study of Hungarian football crowds
• Racist conduct of a core of extremist supporters resulted in an increase in spectator violence also and xenophobic outbursts in particular
• Gypsies, Jews and Russians were the usual targets

Question 8

Another explanation for the evolution of group displays is based on territoriality. What is this?

Answer 8

Protective response to an invasion of ones territory, displayed in many animal species.
Threats are made towards outsiders and violence ovften conducted with great vigour

Question 9

What is a human equivalent of animal territoriality displays?

Answer 9

• Sports teams prior to a match
• Samoa team adopted a war chant before the 1991 Rugby world cup, designed to intimidate opponents and make the home team more aggressive towards them

Question 10

Why would aggressive displays linked to territoriality be adaptive?

Answer 10

Allows groups to defend valuable resources associated with territory

Question 11

Lewis et al found evidence for the power of territorial displays in a study of football fans…

Answer 11

• Crowd support most significant factor in contributing towards home advantage (fans would then feel responsible for inspiring the team and take credit for the win)
• Difficult to pinpoint the dynamics behind this phenomena

Question 12

Why is it difficult to pinpoint the dynamics behind this phenomena? (crowd support)

Answer 12

• Relationship with crowd size is unclear as same effect illustrated with small size
• Unknown whether primary effect is to ‘psych up’ the home team or distract the away team

Question 13

Why are such findings (crowd support) limited as an explanation of territoriality threat displays?

Answer 13

Explanations come from the perspective of the fan rather than the POV of the player, unclear why this happens. Limits territorial displays as an adaptive response and explanation of aggression

Question 14

Testosterone and territorial behaviour provides another evolutionary explanation. Animals and humans both display more aggressive behaviour with higher T levels…

Answer 14

• Do sports teams display collective aggression when defending their territory and do they have higher T levels while doing so?

Question 15

What did Leave and Wolfson find? (T levels)

Answer 15

Football teams playing at home - more likely to win than visiting teams due to surge of testosterone before a match - may be evolved drive to defend home territory

Question 16

The claim that home crowd displays provide a territorial advantage has been challenged by Moore and Brylinksy.

Answer 16

• Measles epidemic: 11 basketball games without spectators
• Both teams achieved higher point totals without spectators than with their home crowds
• Evidence against home advantage existing

Question 17

A further evolutionary explanation is warfare..

Answer 17

• Group displays evolved due to adaptive benefits
• Sexual selection, war-fare oriented societies must compete with each other for mates. Those who succeed in battle are ‘rewarded’ by access to female mates

Question 18

How is the idea of warfare being an explanation of adaptive group display reinforced?

Answer 18

Popularity of male warriors in traditional societies, who tended to have more sexual partners. Clear reproductive benefit

Question 19

Sexual selection/warfare explanation has substantial research support from Palmer and Tilley.

Answer 19

Male street gang members have more sexual partners than ordinary. Also observed in military men, but only in cases where they had shown bravery in combat

Question 20

However, an alternative view is that war is not in the genes…

Answer 20

• Emerged when humans entered settled existence rather than nomadic
• People had ties to sites, so could no longer simply walk away
• Rational response to lifestyle changes
• Not a product of evolution, but a response to environmental changes such as dwindling food supplies

Question 21

What is an overall criticism of research into group display?

Answer 21

Gender Bias
Adams - female warriors unheard of, may cause loss of reproductive capacity. Research does not accurately reflect the behaviour of women, beta bias, andocentric