Fans' Reactions to their Team Victories: An Exploratory Look at the COFFING Process in Elite Sport Fandom

Abstract

The goal of this study was to provide preliminary data pertaining to the identity management process of COFFing (i.e, Cutting of Future Failure; Wann, Hamlet, Wilson, & Hodges, 1995) within the realm of sport fandom. When COFFing, fans who support a low or middle status team (i.e., relatively poorly ranked) tend to hold out enthusiasm about their team victories as a self-protective strategy against the likely advent of future failures. The present mixed sample was comprised of 93 highly involved rugby fans showing allegiance to either a middle status or a high status team. Results first revealed that, compared to fans of high status team, fans of middle status team were less likely to BIRG and were less optimistic about their local team future performances when controlling for team identification level. Secondly, with respect to the role of team identification in the COFFing process for fans of middle status team, a positive correlation was found between team identification, BIRGing and prediction of future performances.