This article was downloaded by: [McGill University]
On: 29 March 2009
Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 909990629]
Publisher Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,
37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Sports Sciences
Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713721847

On passion and sports fans: A look at football
Robert J. Vallerand a; Nikos Ntoumanis b; Frederick L. Philippe a; Geneviève L. Lavigne a; Noémie
Carbonneau a; Arielle Bonneville a; Camille Lagacé-Labonté a; Gabrielle Maliha caUniversité du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Canada b University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK c
Université de Montréal, Montreal, CanadaFirst Published:October2008

To cite this Article Vallerand, Robert J., Ntoumanis, Nikos, Philippe, Frederick L., Lavigne, Geneviève L., Carbonneau, Noémie,Bonneville, Arielle, Lagacé-Labonté, Camille and Maliha, Gabrielle(2008)'On passion and sports fans: A look at football',Journal ofSports Sciences,26:12,1279 — 1293
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/02640410802123185
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640410802123185

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf
This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial orsystematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or
distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents
will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses
should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss,
actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly
or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Journal of Sports Sciences, October 2008; 26(12): 1279–1293

On passion and sports fans: A look at football

ROBERT J. VALLERAND1, NIKOS NTOUMANIS2, FREDERICK L. PHILIPPE1,
GENEVIÈVE L. LAVIGNE1, NOÉMIE CARBONNEAU1, ARIELLE BONNEVILLE1,CAMILLE LAGACÉ-LABONTÉ1, & GABRIELLE MALIHA3
1

Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Canada, 2University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK and 3Université deMontréal, Montreal, Canada

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

(Accepted 11 April 2008)

Abstract
The purpose of the present research was to test the applicability of the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand et al., 2003) tobeing a sport (football) fan. Three studies provided support for this dualistic conceptualization of passion. Study 1 showedthat harmonious passion was positively associated with adaptive behaviours (e.g. celebrate the team’s victory), whereas
obsessive passion was positively associated with maladaptive behaviours (e.g. risking losing one’s job to go to a game). Study
2 used a short Passion Scale and showed that harmonious passion was positively related to the positive affective life of fansduring the 2006 FIFA World Cup, psychological health (self-esteem and life satisfaction), and public displays of adaptive
behaviours (e.g. celebrate the team’s victory into the streets), whereas obsessive passion was predictive of maladaptive
affective life (e.g. hating opposing teams’ fans) and behaviours (e.g. mocking opposing teams’ fans). Finally, Study 3
examined the role of obsessive passion as a predictor of partner’s conflict that in turn undermined partner’s relationshipsatisfaction. Overall, the present results provided support for the Dualistic Model of Passion. The conceptual and applied
implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords: Passion, self-determination, sport fan, positive psychology

Introduction
Every year, millions, if not billions, of fans worldwide
invest time, energy, and money in supporting theirfavourite team. In so doing, sport fans engage in avariety of behaviours. Some are adaptive such as
vigorously cheering their team on to victory andsharing positive experiences with fellow fans. Other
behaviours, however, are less adaptive, such as
engaging in heated discussions about one’s team,and some behaviours are clearly maladaptive. Consider the assassination of a Colombian defender forscoring an own goal against the US team or faking an
emergency landing in Peru, as the Gambians did, toarrive on time at an important football match! Whichfactors lead fans to invest so much of themselves inwatching other people engage in a sport activity?
Which factors lead people to engage in such a varietyof adaptive and maladaptive behaviours? We believethat the concept of passion represents one answer tothese questions. Indeed, being passionate about ateam should lead individuals to identify with thatteam, to dedicate themselves to the team they love,and even to organize their lives around the team’sschedule. However, as Vallerand et al. (2003) haveshown, two different types of passion exist, one
associated with adaptive outcomes and the other withmaladaptive ones. The purpose of the present
research was to test the applicability of the Dualistic
Model of Passion (Vallerand et al., 2003) to being asport fan.
Vallerand and colleagues (Vallerand, 2008;
Vallerand & Houlfort, 2003; Vallerand & Miquelon,
2007; Vallerand et al., 2003) have offered aconceptual analysis of passion toward activities. In
their Dualistic Model of Passion, Vallerand et al.
(2003) suggested that enjoyable activities that areinternalized in one’s identity will become a passion.
A passion is defined as a strong inclination towards
an activity that individuals like (or even love), thatthey value (and thus find important), and in which
they invest time and energy (Vallerand et al., 2003).
Certain enjoyable activities come to be so selfdefining that they represent central features of one’s

Correspondence: R. J. Vallerand, Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Comportement Social, Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, PO
Box 8888, Station ‘‘Centre-ville’’, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3P8, Canada. E-mail: vallerand.robert_J@uqam.ca
ISSN 0264-0414 print/ISSN 1466-447X online Ó 2008 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/02640410802123185

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

1280

R. J. Vallerand et al.

identity. Such a passion then serves to define theperson. For instance, those who have a passion forsupporting their football team do not merely watch
football, they are ‘‘Arsenal’’ or ‘‘Chelsea’’ fans, forinstance. Thus, as suggested by Vass (2003),
cheering for a football team indirectly entails cheering for self. Thus, in this case, the sport team thatpeople cheer for is part of their identity – of whomthey are (Wolfson, Wakelin, & Lewis, 2005).
The Dualistic Model of Passion further posits thattwo distinct types of passion develop as a result of thetype of internalization process that takes place.
Obsessive passion refers to an uncontrollable urge toengage in the activity that one loves. It is as if theperson cannot help but to engage in the passionate
activity. Obsessive passion results from a controlledinternalization (see Deci & Ryan, 2000; Sheldon,
2002; Vallerand, 1997) of the activity into one’s
identity. A controlled internalization takes placewhen intra- and/or interpersonal pressure to engage
in the loved activity is present because certain
contingencies (such as feelings of social acceptanceor self-esteem) are attached to the activity, or
because the sense of excitement derived fromengagement in the activity becomes uncontrollable.
Individuals with an obsessive passion come todevelop ego-invested self-structures (Hodgins &Knee, 2002) and eventually display rigid engagement
and persistence towards the passionate activity. Suchrigidity can lead to less than optimal functioning bothwhile engaged in the passionate activity as well as inother activities. People who experience an obsessive
passion come to feel compelled to engage in thepassionate activity due to these internal contingencies that come to control them. The person thus
experiences a pressuring need to engage in theactivity and is prevented from fully focusing on thetask at hand. Consequently, the person may notexperience positive affect and may even experience
negative affect during engagement in the task
(Vallerand et al., 2003). Furthermore, with obsessive
passion, the person may feel compelled to engage in
the activity even when he or she should not.
Consequently, he or she may experience negative
emotions once engagement in the passionate activity
is terminated (e.g. guilt for having engaged in theactivity when one should not have done so) (Mageau,
Vallerand, Rousseau, Ratelle, & Provencher, 2005;
Ratelle, Vallerand, Mageau, Rousseau, & Provencher, 2004; Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1). In
addition, this internal urge to engage in thepassionate activity should lead the person to remain
cognitively engaged in the activity, to experience
rumination about the activity, and eventually lower
positive affect (Mageau & Vallerand, 2007) andfeelings of psychological dependence when notengaging in the activity (Ratelle et al., 2004). Of

additional interest is that obsessive passion is
expected to create a rigid form of behaviouralpersistence, which, in turn, may lead to physicaland psychological problems such as injuries andburnout (Ratelle et al., 2004; Rip, Fortin, &Vallerand, 2006; Vallerand et al., 2003, Studies 3
and 4). Finally, with obsessive passion the activity
eventually comes to occupy disproportionate spacein the person’s identity and to cause conflict withother life activities, such as neglected intimate
relationships and problems with work involvement.
In contrast, harmonious passion results from anautonomous internalization (Deci & Ryan, 2000;
Ryan & Deci, 2000) of the activity into the person’s
identity. An autonomous internalization occurs when
individuals have freely accepted the activity asimportant for them without any contingencies
attached to it. Harmonious passion refers to a strong
inclination to engage in the activity willingly and witha sense of volition (Vallerand, Fortier, & Guay,
1997). Thus, with harmonious passion, individuals
do not experience this uncontrollable urge to engage
in the enjoyable activity. While the passionate activity
is important for them, it nevertheless remains inharmony with other aspects of the person’s life. Thisis because with harmonious passion the authentic
integrating self is at play (Hodgins & Knee, 2002).
Such an orientation leads the person to engage in thetask in a flexible manner and to experience task
engagement fully. People should then experience
positive affect, better concentration, absorption, andflow (i.e. the feeling that one is immersed in theactivity; see Csikszentmihalyi, 1978; Jackson &Marsh, 1996) while engaging in the activity. Harmonious passion may even facilitate positive affect when
the person is engaged in other activities because it
precludes rumination when not engaging in thepassionate activity (Mageau et al., 2005; Ratelle et al.,
2004; Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1). In addition,such control over the activity should lead the person
to display flexible persistence, thereby persisting in
the passionate activity only if positive returns (e.g.
fun, positive affect, flow) are expected. If conditions
become permanently negative, behavioural involvement should stop. Finally, with harmonious passion,
the activity occupies an important, but not overwhelming place in the person’s identity. Therefore,
little conflict is expected with other activities in the
person’s life. Thus, minimal negative impact shouldtake place in other life areas such as partner
relationships and one’s work life.
Research conducted to date has provided support
for the Dualistic Model of Passion. For instance,
results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses have supported the validity and reliability ofthe two-factor Passion Scale (see Rousseau,
Vallerand, Ratelle, Mageau, & Provencher, 2002;

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

Passion and sports fans
Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1; Vallerand et al.,2006). Furthermore, both types of passion have beenfound to correlate positively with measures of activity
valuation, of perceptions of the task as being apassionate activity, and of activity inclusion in theself. However, as expected, only obsessive passion
was found to be associated with a measure of conflictwith other life activities (e.g. studies, family, friend;
Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1). A positive relationshipbetween harmonious passion and measures of flow
and positive affect during task engagement has also
been demonstrated (Mageau et al., 2005; Vallerandet al., 2003, Study 1). As predicted, obsessive passion
has been found to be positively related to negative
affect (e.g. shame) and cognition (e.g. rumination)
after engagement with the activity and when prevented
from engaging in the activity altogether (Ratelle et al.,
2004; Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1).
Other researchers have shown that the two types ofpassion are differentially related to other outcomes
besides affect. For instance, harmonious passion ispositively associated with subjective well-being, whileobsessive passion is either unrelated or negatively
related to subjective well-being (Vallerand & Houlfort, 2003; Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 2; Vallerandet al., 2006, 2007). Obsessive passion also predicts
highly persistent behaviour in passionate activities
that may be ill-advised for the person, such as: wintercycling over icy roads in Quebec (Vallerand et al.,2003, Study 3); persisting in dancing while injured,leading to chronic injuries in ballet dancers (Rip et al.,2006); as well as heavy involvement in gambling
activities (Rousseau et al., 2002) that may be
conducive to pathological gambling (Philippe &Vallerand, 2007; Ratelle et al., 2004; Vallerandet al., 2003, Study 4). Obsessive passion has also
been found to be positively related to conflict withother life activities (Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1).
Such conflict has been found to have negative
repercussions on marital adjustment (Séguin-Lévesque, Laliberté, Pelletier, Blanchard, & Vallerand,2003). Harmonious passion has been shown to beeither unrelated or negatively related to the above
negative outcomes.
The research presented above provides strong
support for the Dualistic Model of Passion. However,no researchers have so far addressed the issue of beinga passionate sport fan. In this paper, we sought toinvestigate this issue. Recently, psychologists havebegun to research scientifically sport fandom. For
instance, concepts such as team commitment (Mahony, Madrigal, & Howard, 2000), loyalty (Backman& Crompton, 1991), and identification (Wann &Branscombe, 1993) have been studied from the fans’perspective. The research on the concept of sport
team identification (Wann, 2006; Wann, Haynes,
McLean, & Pullen, 2003) is of particular importance.

1281

Wann et al. (2003) define sport team identification(STI) as ‘‘a strong psychological connection to ateam . . . a central component of their self-identity’’(p. 407). Thus, in line with the Dualistic Model ofPassion, these authors also posit that individuals witha strong sport team identification will have internalized the sport team in their identity. Furthermore,
Wann and colleagues have proposed that a sport team
identification of a local team should contribute to
one’s psychological health. While some researchers
have been supportive of this hypothesis (e.g. Wann,
2006), others have shown that sport team identification also predicts negative outcomes such as depression (e.g. Schweitzer, Zillman, Weaver, & Luttrell,1992) and even aggression towards others, especiallyafter a loss (Wann et al., 2003).
The above research reveals the existence of aparadox as sport team identification predicts both
adaptive (e.g. psychological adjustment) and maladaptive (e.g. depression, aggression) outcomes. It isbelieved that this paradox can be resolved by theDualistic Model of Passion. Contrary to the sport
team identification approach that posits the existenceof a unitary construct of team identification, thePassion model posits that two types of passion may
take place as a function of the type of internalization
process that leads the activity (i.e. supporting one’steam) to be internalized within identity. While bothtypes of passion underlie heavy involvement as asports fan, in line with past passion research it isexpected that harmonious passion should be more
conducive to adaptive outcomes, while obsessive
passion should lead to maladaptive outcomes. The
Dualistic Model of Passion thus allows us to resolve
the current paradox in the sports fan literature
regarding the positive and negative outcomes associated with team identification.
The purpose of the present research was to test therole of passion for supporting a sport team in avariety of affective, cognitive, behavioural, andinterpersonal outcomes. Specifically, three studies
were conducted to test the applicability of theDualistic Passion Model to being a football fan.
The main aims of Study 1 were to assess the roles of
the two types of passion and to compare these tosport team identification (Wann & Branscombe,1993) in a variety of behaviours, some adaptive (e.g.
celebrate the team’s victory), some less so (e.g.
risking losing one’s job to go to the team’s game), as
well as in life satisfaction. Study 2 took place during
the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Its main purpose was toascertain the role of passion in the affective life offans during the World Cup, in psychological health(self-esteem and life satisfaction), as well as in the
public display of adaptive (celebrating one’s team
victory) and maladaptive (making fun of fans of
the opposing team) behaviours. Finally, Study 3

1282

R. J. Vallerand et al.

investigated the role of obsessive and harmonious
passion in football fans’ satisfaction with their partner
relationship. Overall, in line with past research on
passion, it was hypothesized that harmonious passion
towards supporting one’s team would lead to more
adaptive outcomes than obsessive passion.

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

Study 1The purpose of Study 1 was to test the applicabilityof the Passion model to supporting one’s team withfootball fans from the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the predictive validity of harmonious andobsessive passion was compared with that of the STI
construct. Participants completed the Passion Scale(Vallerand et al., 2003) and the STI Scale (Wann &Branscombe, 1993), a variety of adaptive (e.g.
celebrating after a victory) and maladaptive (e.g.
missing work, missing an important family event to
go to a game) fan behaviours, and life satisfaction. Inline with past research on passion (see Vallerand &Miquelon, 2007; Vallerand et al., 2006, 2007), it was
hypothesized that both types of passion would bepositively related to a measure indicating that theirteam was part of their identity (as assessed by the STI
Scale). In addition, both harmonious and obsessive
passions were expected to predict support for theirteam by celebrating victories. However, harmonious(but not obsessive) passion was expected to bepositively associated with life satisfaction. Conversely, obsessive passion was expected to be positively
related to the maladaptive behaviours describedabove. These predictions were expected to hold evenwhile controlling for sport team identification, which
was expected to predict both the adaptive andmaladaptive outcomes, but less strongly so thanharmonious and obsessive passion, respectively.

Methods
Participants
The participants were 165 adults (127 males, 9females; 29 did not indicate their gender). Most were
spectators attending a football game in a stadium in alarge metropolitan city of England. Others wererecruited in other public places (e.g. universities,
shopping centres). Participants ranged in age from18 to 75 years with a mean age of 30.8 years (s ¼ 12.6
years). These participants supported a number ofclubs, mainly from the English Premier League.
Measures
The Passion Scale. This scale (Vallerand et al., 2003)
was used to assess passion towards supporting one’s

favourite team. The Passion Scale is divided into two
subscales of six items each – the obsessive subscale
and the harmonious subscale. Each item of these two
subscales is rated on a 7-point Likert scale. Sample
items include ‘‘Supporting my team is in harmony
with other activities in my life’’ (Harmonious Passion
Subscale) and ‘‘I have difficulties controlling myurge to support my team’’ (Obsessive Passion
Subscale). The Passion Scale has been shown tohave high construct validity, through exploratory andconfirmatory factor analyses, and concurrent validity(e.g. Rousseau et al., 2002; Vallerand & Houlfort,
2003; Vallerand et al., 2003, 2006). A confirmatory
factor analysis was conducted with the data of thepresent study to test the bi-factorial structure of the
Passion Scale as applied to football fans. The resultsof this analysis revealed adequate fit to the data: w2(d.f. ¼ 46, N ¼ 165) ¼ 83.35, P 5 0.001, root meansquare error of approximation ¼ 0.07, comparative
fit index ¼ 0.98, goodness-of-fit index ¼ 0.92,
normed fit index ¼ 0.95, non-normed fit index ¼ 0.97, standardized root mean square residual ¼ 0.05. Furthermore, results of internalconsistency analyses in the present study revealed
adequate indices for the Harmonious and Obsessive Passion Subscales (a ¼ 0.83 and 0.82, respectively), thus replicating past findings with the
Passion Scale.
All scales used in Study 1 were scored on a 7-point
Likert scale (1 ¼ not agree at all, 7 ¼ very strongly
agree) except for the STI Scale, which was assessedon an 8-point scale.
Identity as a team fan (the STI Scale). The STI scale(Wann & Branscombe, 1993) was used to assess
identity as a team fan. The STI scale contains seven
items and assesses the extent to which the team thatthe participants support is part of their identity. A
sample item is ‘‘How strongly do you see yourself asa fan of your team?’’ The alpha coefficient for thisscale in this study was 0.80.
Celebration behaviours. Two items assessed theextent to which participants like to celebrate thevictory of their team when they win. The twoitems were ‘‘I like to celebrate when my teamwins’’ and ‘‘I like to tell others that my team wins’’(r ¼ 0.64).
Maladaptive behaviours. A scale of four items
assessed maladaptive behaviours. Each item assesseda behaviour often engaged in by football fans that
tend to be counterproductive. Sample items were‘‘For my team I could pay way over the odds for aticket on the black market’’ and ‘‘For my team I
could miss a very important event (e.g. a child’s 18thbirthday, wedding, funeral, etc.)’’ (a ¼ 0.88).

Passion and sports fans
Rumination about football. An adapted 5-item versionof the Rumination on Sadness Scale (Conway,
Csank, Holm, & Blake, 2000) was used to measurepeople’s tendency to ruminate about football while
engaging in another activity. Using the following
stem, ‘‘In general, when I do something else thanwatching football . . .’’. A sample item is ‘‘. . . I
constantly think about the upcoming football game’’(a ¼ 0.92).

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

Cognition and behaviours about football. A variety ofsingle items were also included in the questionnaire
to assess a number of behaviours and cognitions
relative to football. Items dealt with importance of
supporting one’s team in life, emotional recovery
after a loss, use of superstition, skipping work towatch a football game, and arguing about one’s team(see Table I).
Life satisfaction. Participants were administered theSatisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). This scale contains
five items and assesses global life satisfaction. Sample
items are ‘‘Even if I could, I wouldn’t change
anything in my life’’ and ‘‘I am satisfied with mylife’’ (a ¼ 0.87).
Procedure
Four trained research assistants approached footballfans randomly just before they reached their seat
before the beginning of a football game. These

1283

assistants told the football fans that they wereconducting a survey and asked them if they could
complete a questionnaire about football fans’ attitudes. Participants who accepted to take part in thisstudy were told that their answers would remain
anonymous and confidential. Participants completed
the questionnaire and then returned it by hand to
one of the assistants. Participants recruited in
shopping centres and at university were approached
in a similar fashion, with the difference that they wereintercepted at the entrance of the shopping centre/
university and asked to complete the questionnaire
on a table that was prepared to this effect.

Results and discussion
Passion and outcomes
Results from Pearson correlations showed that bothtypes of passion were strongly positively associatedwith sport team identification, thereby indicating thatthe two types of passion shared some common
variance with the concept of sport fan identity, as
anticipated. Next, multiple regression analyses wereconducted with both harmonious and obsessive
passion and sport team identification as predictors,
and the various fan cognition, affect, and behaviour
predictors as dependent variables. Results from theseanalyses appear in Table I. As can be seen, amoderate proportion of variance was explained by
the three predictors and all regression equations weresignificant (P 5 0.01). All three predictors positively

Table I. Harmonious passion, obsessive passion, and fans’ identity as predictors of fans’ cognition and behaviours in Study 1: Results ofmultiple regression analyses.
Behaviours and cognition scales and items

Mean

s

HP b

OP b

STI b

R2

Harmonious passion (HP)
Obsessive passion (OP)Identity as a team fan (STI)b
Celebration behaviours
Life would be boring/meaningless without one’s team
Difficult emotional recovery after one’s team loses
When my team plays on a given night, I havetrouble concentrating the whole day
Using superstition to enhance one’s team’s chances of winning
Maladaptive behaviours (e.g. missing important family events
to see a game, etc.)
Skipping work to go see a game
Rumination about football
Getting into serious arguments with other people over one’s
team’s performance
Life satisfaction

4.62
4.27
6.66
5.38
3.82
3.87
3.59

1.28
1.40
1.07
1.27
2.17
1.86
2.06

–
r ¼ 0.61**ar ¼ 0.52**
0.17*
0.16*
0.00
0.03

–
–
r ¼ 0.66**
0.23*
0.52**
0.49**
0.55**–––
0.31**
0.06
0.17*
0.19*

–
–
–
0.37
0.45
0.33
0.48

3.48
3.99

2.24
1.94

0.00
0.03

0.25*
0.42**

0.22*
0.29**

0.20
0.41

3.7
3.20
4.22

2.38
1.66
2.04

70.05
0.10
70.05

0.50**
0.65**
0.48**

0.08
0.02
0.09

0.28
0.55
0.29

4.70

1.29

0.29*

0.02

0.07

70.04

Note: n ¼ 165; *P 5 0.05, **P 5 0.01. All coefficients are beta weights from the multiple regression analyses except for the coefficientsamong the two types of passion and the STI measure, which are Pearson correlation coefficients.
a
The two subscales of passion are usually positively correlated (see, for example, Ratelle et al., 2004; Vallerand et al., 2003, 2006). The
correlations can range between 0.20 and 0.60, depending of the passionate activity.
bThis measure was assessed with an 8-point scale, while all the other measures were scored on a 7-point scale.

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

1284

R. J. Vallerand et al.

predicted victory celebration. Overall, obsessive
passion positively predicted all types of maladaptive
behaviours, sport team identification positively predicted some, and harmonious passion none. Specifically, only obsessive passion was positively andstrongly associated with negative cognition andbehaviour such as ruminating about the game,missing important family events or missing work toattend a game, and having serious arguments over
one’s team. Both obsessive passion and sport team
identification positively and moderately predictedengaging in superstitious behaviour, having problems
concentrating on game day, recovering after a loss,
and engaging in additional maladaptive behaviours
such as paying an inflated price for a ticket for an
important game. Finally, results revealed that only
harmonious passion was positively and moderately
associated with life satisfaction.
These findings provide support for the Dualistic
Model of Passion. Specifically, both types of passion
were found to be positively related to the team being
part of the fans’ identity (the STI) as well as to therelated behaviour of celebrating one’s team victory,
thereby displaying public support for the team.
Furthermore, obsessive passion was found to be themain predictor of all maladaptive behaviours. Conversely, in line with past research (Vallerand et al.,2003, Study 2; Vallerand et al., 2006, 2007), only
harmonious passion was found to be positively
associated with life satisfaction. Of additional interestis that these findings were obtained while controllingfor sport team identification. These findings suggest
that, while having a passion for one’s team is indeed
part of one’s identity, it is much more than thisidentity feature. As posited by Vallerand et al.
(2003), having a passion also entails having a strong
inclination towards the activity of supporting a team.
Furthermore, it would appear that passion matterswith respect to outcomes, with harmonious passion
leading to adaptive outcomes and obsessive passion
leading to less adaptive ones.

Study 2The purposes of Study 2 were fourfold. The first
purpose was to replicate the differential pattern offindings as a function of the two types of passion
obtained in Study 1 during a specific event, namely
the Final of the 2006 FIFA World Cup (France vs.
Italy). A second purpose of Study 2 was to study therole of passion in positive emotions experienced
during the World Cup (feeling happy, enthusiastic,
proud, and confident), as well as in the negative
affect of hate towards supporters of other teams.
Harmonious passion should facilitate the experienceof positive emotions because it allows people toimmerse themselves fully in the activity (Mageau
et al., 2005; Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1).
Furthermore, because it takes roots in the authentic
integrating self (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Hodgins &Knee, 2002), the person’s identity should be secured
and thus fans of the other team should not beperceived as obstacles or enemies. Therefore, harmonious passion should not lead to the experience ofhate towards opposing teams. Conversely, because
obsessive passion does not allow people to fully
experience positive emotions (Mageau et al., 2005;
Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1; for a review, seeVallerand & Miquelon, 2007), it was expected thatthe link between obsessive passion and the positive
emotions of happiness, confidence, and enthusiasm
would be weak even after a series of wins by one’s
team during the World Cup. However, it was
expected that both harmonious and obsessive passion would be positively related to the emotion of
pride because the latter is closely linked to one’s
identity. Finally, because obsessive passion originatesfrom ego-invested self-structures (Hodgins & Knee,
2002), it may lead to the perception of fans of otherteams as obstacles in the way of their team’s victoryor even as a symbolic threat to the self (Steele, 1988).
Thus, obsessive passion would be expected to lead tothe experience of hate towards other teams.
A third purpose was to study further the relationship between the two types of passion and psychological health variables such as life satisfaction andself-esteem. In line with past research on the role ofharmonious and obsessive passion in subjective wellbeing (e.g. Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 2; Vallerandet al., 2006, 2007), it was hypothesized that
harmonious passion would be positively related toboth life satisfaction and self-esteem, while obsessive
passion would be either unrelated or negatively
related to these variables.
Finally, the fourth purpose of Study 2 was to better
understand the underlying psychological processes
leading fans to engage in two seemingly similar
behaviours that nevertheless vary in their levels ofadaptiveness, namely celebrating one’s team victoryin the street versus celebrating in the street tospecifically mock the losing team’s supporters. Whilethese two types of behaviours may superficially look
similar, they nevertheless have different and important implications, one of them being that the second
type of behaviour may lead to riots and violence. It
was hypothesized that these two types of behaviour
should originate from different processes. As hypothesized above, both harmonious and obsessive
passions are expected to predict the emotion of
pride, while only obsessive passion is expected tolead to hate towards fans of other teams. In turn,these different types of emotions are expected todifferentially underlie one’s engagement in the twoPassion and sports fanstypes of social behaviour. Specifically, hating supporters of other teams should primarily lead one to
go into the street to make fun of them, while theemotion of pride was expected to lead primarily tocelebrating in the streets. The other emotions werehypothesized to be unrelated to these behaviours. In
addition, all these relationships were hypothesized tohold in a path analytic model, even when controllingfor other competing variables.

Methods

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

ParticipantsParticipants were 242 football fans (135 males, 97
females; 10 did not report their gender) ranging inage from 18 to 85 years, with a mean age of 32.7
years (s ¼ 11.4 years). Altogether, 126 supporters ofFrance and 116 supporters of Italy participated. Fansof these two teams were selected because they were
facing each other in the Final after having won all
their games from the ‘‘round of 16 teams’’ during thetournament. While all participants were Quebec
citizens, the large majority were either of Italian or
French descent and were all fluent in French. Morespecifically, 29.2% of the supporters of Italy wereborn in Canada, 60.2% in Italy, and 10.6% reported
to be born elsewhere. As for the supporters ofFrance, 36.7% were born in Canada, 50.8% in
France, and 12.5% reported to be born elsewhere.
Measures
Short scales were employed due to the conditions
under which the testing was conducted (participants
were recruited in pubs just before the Final) and toensure participation. However, as will be seen below,
these short scales were representative of the longer
versions of the scales.
The Passion Scale. The Passion Scale used in Study 1
was again used in Study 2. However, to keep thequestionnaire very short, only three items from each
subscale were used. These items corresponded to thethree highest item loadings of Study 1 on theirrespective subscale factor. Exploratory factor analysis
with Oblimin rotation revealed two factors accounting for 72% of the variance. Each item significantly
loaded on its respective factor with factor loadings
ranging from 0.40 to 0.93. Alpha coefficients for the
harmonious and obsessive subscales were adequate(a ¼ 0.72 and 0.83, respectively). Based on the datafrom Study 1, correlations between each three-item
subscale and their full original subscale revealed very
high correlations (harmonious passion subscale,r ¼ 0.93; obsessive passion subscale, r ¼ 0.95). These
correlations indicate that the three-item subscales are

1285

representative of the full subscales. Items were
responded to on a 9-point Likert scale (1 ¼ Do notagree at all, 9 ¼ Agree strongly).
Identity. One item served to measure the extent towhich supporting their national football team waspart of their identity (‘‘The country that I support ispart of me, part of my identity’’). This item was
responded to on a 9-point Likert scale (1 ¼ Do notagree at all, 9 ¼ Agree strongly).
Emotions. Five items were used to assess fiveemotions felt during the World Cup Tournament.
Emotions assessed were those of hate (against theirteam’s opponents), pride, happiness, confidence,and enthusiasm. Participants were asked to rate theextent to which they experienced these emotions
during the World Cup on a 9-point scale (1 ¼ Do notagree at all, 9 ¼ Agree strongly).
Fan behaviours. Three different behaviours wereassessed with one item each. Specifically, participants were asked to rate the frequency to which they
engaged in behaviours such as missing work to watch
one or more games, making fun of the losing teams’
fans, and going into the street to celebrate. It should
be noted that during the 2006 World Cup, the Cityof Montreal closed down certain streets so as to allow
fans to celebrate their team’s victory. These three
items were responded to on a 5-point Likert scale(0 ¼ Never, 5 ¼ Always).
Satisfaction With Life Scale. One key item (‘‘I am
satisfied with my life in general’’) from the 5-item
SWLS (Diener et al., 1985) was used to assess life
satisfaction. In Study 1 there was a very highcorrelation between this item and the full five-item
scale (r ¼ 0.86, P 5 0.001). This item was responded
on a 9-point Likert scale (1 ¼ Do not agree at all,
9 ¼ Agree strongly).
Self-esteem. The one-item self-esteem scale of Robins
and colleagues (Robins, Hendin, & Trzesniewski,2001) was used in this study. This scale has beenshown to display high validity and test–retest reliability, high correlations with commonly used selfesteem measures (the Social Behaviour Inventory andthe Rosenberg Scale; correlations between 0.70 and0.80), and has yielded results very similar to the
Rosenberg Scale (see Robins et al., 2001). The item(‘‘I have high self-esteem’’) was completed on a 9point scale (1 ¼ Do not agree at all, 9 ¼ Agree strongly).
Procedure
Participants were recruited within 2 h of the start ofthe 2006 FIFA World Football Cup final game in

1286

R. J. Vallerand et al.

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

two drinking establishments situated in Montreal,
Quebec, Canada. The game took place around14.00 h (Montreal time), thus testing at this earlyhour (around noon) reduced the likelihood thatparticipants had drunk alcohol before completing thequestionnaire. At the time of administration of thequestionnaire, participants in the pubs appearedquite excited, but very few had started to drink
heavily, as it was lunchtime. The final game involved
France and Italy. One drinking establishment was
known to be an important location for supporters ofFrance, while the other one was associated withsupporters of Italy. Five trained assistants introduced
themselves to the participants and asked them tocomplete a survey on attitudes toward football.
Participants were told that it was an anonymousquestionnaire and that their answers would remain
confidential. All questionnaires were collected before
the game started.

Results and discussion
Correlational analyses
Partial correlations were computed between eachtype of passion and the different outcome measures(see Table II). Results revealed that both types ofpassion were weakly positively correlated with selfidentification with the supported team and withcelebration in the street following team victories
during the World Cup. Both types of passion werealso positively associated with positive emotions
experienced during the tournament, except forenthusiasm, which was not associated with obsessive
Table II. Means, standard deviations, and partial correlations
between the two types of passion and football fans’ identity,
emotional, and behavioural components (Study 2).

Obsessive passion (OP)aHarmonious
passion (HP)a
Identitya
HappyaConfidenta
Enthusiastica
ProudaHating opposing team’s fansa
Celebrating the team’s
victory into the streetb
Mocking the opposing
team’s fansb
Missing workb
Life satisfactiona
Self-esteema

Mean

s

HP

OP

3.80
5.95

2.35
1.86

r ¼ 0.45**
–

–
–

6.86
7.72
6.56
7.86
7.08
3.33
3.01

2.77
1.81
2.34
1.72
2.40
2.65
1.60

0.18**
0.37**
0.26**
0.32**
0.21**
0.03
0.16*

1.52

1.72

2.02
7.55
6.88

2.00
1.60
2.04

70.03

0.18**
0.12*
0.16*
0.07
0.27**
0.36**
0.27**
0.34**

0.07
0.36**
0.16* 0.07
0.20** 0.08

Note: n ¼ 242; *P 5 0.05, **P 5 0.01.
aThese variables were assessed with a 9-point scale.
b
These variables were assessed with a 5-point scale.

passion. It should be noted, however, that partial
correlations involving the happiness, confidence, andenthusiasm emotions were moderately associatedwith harmonious passion, but only weakly associatedwith obsessive passion, while that involving pride wasslightly higher for obsessive than for harmonious
passion. The emotion of hate towards other teams,
however, was found to correlate positively andmoderately with obsessive passion only. While bothtypes of passion were positively and weakly related tocelebrating following a team victory, importantdifferences emerged between the two types ofpassion with respect to the maladaptive behavioursof making fun of losing teams’ fans, and with workabsenteeism to watch football games. Obsessive
passion was positively and moderately correlatedwith these two behaviours, while harmonious passion
was not. Finally, harmonious passion was positively
and weakly associated with life satisfaction and selfesteem, while obsessive passion was not significantly
related to these variables. Data were also analysed asa function of the two countries supported (France or
Italy). Results revealed the presence of some culturaldifferences, as supporters of Italy reported higher
levels of harmonious (F ¼ 4.20, P 5 0.05) andobsessive passion (F ¼ 8.99, P 5 0.01), identity(F ¼ 4.64, P 5 0.05), pride (F ¼ 8.07, P 5 0.01),
and confidence (F ¼ 6.76, P 5 0.01) during thetournament. Finally, supporters of Italy also reported
higher levels of self-esteem (F ¼ 6.54, P 5 0.05).
However, regressing each separate outcome (emotions and behaviours) on the two types of passion,
gender, and a dummy coded variable for culture(France or Italy) yielded no change in the direction
or significance of the partial correlations reported inTable II and eliminated most of the gender andcultural effects. This last finding suggests that theroles of culture and gender in outcomes experienced
during the World Cup were largely mediated bypassion.
Path analysis
The proposed model posits that both types of passion
would lead to the emotion of pride following
victories that would in turn predict the behaviourof celebrating in the streets. However, it was
hypothesized that only obsessive passion would leadto the emotion of hate towards opponents of one’s
team. This emotion, in turn, was expected to predict
the behaviour of laughing at fans from the opposing
losing teams. A path analysis with LISREL 8(Jöreskog & Sörborm, 2003) was conducted to test
the proposed model. The covariance matrix served as
the database for the path analysis and the method of
estimation was maximum likelihood. Paths weredrawn according to the proposed model. In addition,

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

Passion and sports fansa positive covariance was estimated between the two
types of passion, the emotions of hate and pride, as
well as the two types of behaviour, as these variables
were assumed to positively covary. Furthermore,
results of modification indices of a preliminary model
suggested the inclusion of significant direct paths
from obsessive passion to both celebrating in thestreets and to mocking the opposing team’s fans.
These direct paths were included in the final model.
Results of the path analysis revealed a satisfactory
fit of the model to the data. The chi-square value was
non-significant, w2 (d.f. ¼ 16, N ¼ 242) ¼ 8.77,
P ¼ 0.19, and other fit indices were excellent:
non-normed fit index ¼ 0.99, comparative fit index ¼ 0.99, root mean square error of approximation ¼ 0.044, goodness-of-fit index ¼ 0.99,
and normed fit index ¼ 0.98. As shown in Figure 1,
all estimated paths were significant. These results
provided support for our hypothesis that while bothtypes of passion predicted the emotion of pride,
which in turn predicted the adaptive behaviour ofcelebrating in the streets, only obsessive passion was
found to predict the emotion of hate towards otherteams’ fans, which led to the behaviour of laughing atthese fans. These results therefore provide additional
support for the Dualistic Passion Model and past
research in that obsessive passion was found to positively relate mainly to maladaptive emotions (hate)and behaviours (taunting fans of opposing teams),
while harmonious passion was found to positively
predict adaptive outcomes (e.g. celebrating in thestreets as well as life satisfaction and self-esteem).

Study 3
Studies 1 and 2 ascertained the relationships between
passion and intra- and interpersonal outcomes that1287

take place within the purview of the passionate
activity (supporting one’s football team). The purpose of Study 3 was to expand these studies bystudying the role of passion in the prediction of aninterpersonal outcome experienced outside of thepassionate activity, namely the satisfaction of one’s
partner relationship. Past research (Séguin-Lévesqueet al., 2003) has shown that obsessive (but notharmonious) passion for the Internet undermines
dyadic adjustment. Study 3 sought to replicate thesefindings with respect to football. In addition, we
hypothesized that such negative effects from obsessive passion on the quality of partner relationship are
mediated by the conflict that obsessive passionengenders (see Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1)
between football and the love relationship. This isbecause obsessive passion creates a rigid persistencewith the activity that leads the person to ruminate
and think about the activity when not engaging in it(Ratelle et al., 2004; Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1).
It should lead the person to experience conflict
between the passionate activity and other aspects of
one’s life (Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1) such as therelationship with one’s spouse (e.g. Séguin-Levesqueet al., 2003).
Football fans completed scales assessing passion,
conflict between supporting football and the relationship with one’s partner, and satisfaction with one’s
partner. A path analysis was conducted on the data.
It was hypothesized that the ‘‘Obsessive Passion !
Conflict ! Quality of Partner Relationship’’ sequence would be supported by the results of the pathanalysis. Harmonious passion was not expected torelate to the conflict variable or to the quality of therelationship. Finally, participants who indicated not
being in a romantic relationship were asked to what
extent their involvement with football was responsible for their having problems finding a romantic

Figure 1. The role of passion and affect in fan behaviour: Results of the path analysis in Study 2. *P 5 0.05, **P 5 0.01.

1288

R. J. Vallerand et al.

partner. It was hypothesized that obsessive andharmonious passion would be positively and negatively related to this variable, respectively.

Methods
Participants
A total of 144 spectators (92 males, 9 females; 43 of
unknown gender) attending a football game in a
stadium in a large metropolitan city in England wererecruited to participate in this study. Participants
ranged in age from 18 to 85 years and had a mean
age of 31.1 years (s ¼ 13.2 years).

Procedure
Participants were recruited according to the sameprocedures used in Study 1. However, this time,
research assistants told football fans that they wereconducting a survey about football and partner
relationships. Participants who agreed to take partin this study were told that their answers would
remain anonymous and confidential. They were also
told that once completed, the questionnaires were to
be returned directly to one of the assistants.

Results and discussion
Correlational analyses

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

Measures
The Passion Scale. The full Passion Scale used inStudy 1 was again administered in this study(a ¼ 0.81 for both subscales).
The Football–Partner Relationship Conflict Scale. A
four-item scale assessing conflict between supporting football and the relationship with one’s
romantic partner was devised for the purpose ofthis study and administered to participants. Thesefour items were: (1) ‘‘ My partner often complains
about my passion for football’’, (2) ‘‘I think mypassion for football has seriously affected thequality of my relationship’’, (3) ‘‘My partner andI have gotten into serious arguments because of
my passion for football’’, (4) ‘‘I would rather
stop seeing my partner than stop following football’’. The reliability of the scale was adequate(a ¼ 0.85).
Satisfaction with one’s partner relationship. Participants
who reported having a partner were asked tocomplete six items from the Perceived Relationship
Quality Components Inventory (Fletcher, Simpson,& Thomas, 2000). This scale assesses satisfaction
with one’s partner relationship. A sample item is‘‘How satisfied are you with your relationship?’’(a ¼ 0.97). A total of 116 participants were involvedin a romantic relationship. Those who were not(n ¼ 28) were asked to skip this scale and to complete
the following scale.
Football and problems finding a partner. This four-item
scale assessed the extent to which participants’passion for football makes it difficult to find or bewith a partner. A sample item is ‘‘My passion for
football makes it difficult to find a partner’’(a ¼ 0.94).
All of the above scales were completed on a 7point Likert scale (1 ¼ Not agree at all, 7 ¼ Verystrongly agree).

Table III reports the partial correlations involving thetwo types of passion and the football–partner
relationship conflict and couple satisfaction variables. Obsessive passion was positively correlatedwith the conflict variable but was unrelated to thesatisfaction with one’s partner relationship variable.
Harmonious passion was unrelated to both variables.
With respect to participants not involved in a partner
relationship (n ¼ 28), partial correlations revealed
that harmonious passion was negatively and strongly
associated with difficulties finding a partner becauseof football, while obsessive passion was positively andstrongly associated with this factor. Shrout and
Bolger (2002; see also MacKinnon, Lockwood,
Hoffman, West, & Sheets, 2002) acknowledge thepossibility that mediation does exist even if the
independent variable (in the present case, obsessive
passion) is not significantly related to the dependent
variable (in the present case, partner relationshipsatisfaction). In such a case, the impact of the
independent variable is completely explained

Table III. Means, standard deviations, and partial correlations
between the two types of passion and partner relationshipcomponents (Study 3).

Obsessive passion (OP)Harmonious passion (HP)
Conflict between
football and partner
relationshipa
Partner relationshipsatisfactiona
Difficulties
finding a partner
because of footballb

Mean

SD

HP

OP

4.33
4.69
2.56

1.36
1.24
1.65

r ¼ 0.61**
–
70.13

–
–
0.45**

5.98

1.35

0.01

1.94

1.45

70.55**

Note: *P 5 0.05, **P 5 0.01.
an ¼ 116.
bn ¼ 28. All measures were scored on a 7-point scale.

70.02
0.76**

Passion and sports fansthrough the indirect effect it has on the mediating
variable (here conflict).

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

Path analysis
A path analytic model with participants involved in aromantic relationship (n ¼ 116) was tested using
LISREL 8. The model posited that obsessive passion
would positively predict conflict between footballand the partner relationship, which in turn would
negatively predict satisfaction with the relationship.
Harmonious passion was not expected to be associated with the conflict variable but was included in
the model for control purposes. To test thishypothesis, a path analysis was conducted using
structural equation modelling. The covariance matrix served as the database for the path analysis andthe method of estimation was maximum likelihood.
Paths were specified according to the proposedmodel. In addition, a positive covariance wasestimated between the two types of passion, as thesetwo variables were assumed to positively covary.
Results of the path analysis revealed a satisfactory
fit of the model to the data. The chi-square value was
non-significant, w2 (d.f. ¼ 3, N ¼ 116) ¼ 5.64,
P ¼ 0.13, and the other fit indices were excellent:
non-normed fit index ¼ 0.93, comparative fit index ¼ 0.96, root mean square error of approximation ¼ 0.09, goodness-of-fit index ¼ 0.98,
and normed fit index ¼ 0.93. Figure 2 presents theresults of the various paths. It can be seen that all
proposed paths were supported. In addition, a Sobel
test confirmed that the mediation of relationshipconflicts between obsessive passion and relationshipsatisfaction was significant (z ¼ 73.27, P 5 0.01).
The proportion mediated ratio (see Shrout & Bolger,
2002) for this mediation was PM ¼ 1.00, thus
suggesting that relationship conflicts completely
mediate the relationship between obsessive passion
and relationship satisfaction.
In summary, the present results confirmed ourhypotheses. The proposed model involving paths

1289

from obsessive passion to conflict between footballand relationship, and from conflict to relationshipsatisfaction, was supported. These findings thus
replicate those of past findings on the role ofobsessive passion in generating conflict with otheraspects of one’s life (Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1),
including love relationships (Séguin-Lévesque et al.,2003). Furthermore, for those not involved in a
relationship, it appears that having an obsessive
passion for supporting one’s team may play a rolein their remaining single. Overall, these findings
provide additional support for the Dualistic Model ofPassion.
General discussion
The purpose of the present research was to test theapplicability of the Dualistic Model of Passion withrespect to supporting one’s sport team in a series ofthree studies with football fans. In Study 1, it was
hypothesized that both types of passion would bepositively related to the team being part of the fans’identity and related to behaviours such as celebratingteam victory. However, obsessive passion was expected to be positively related to maladaptive
behaviours such as risking losing one’s job andmissing important family events to go to a game,making fun of the fans of opposing teams, getting
into arguments because of one’s team, and having
problems concentrating on other activities on gamedays, while harmonious passion was hypothesized tobe either negatively related or unrelated to suchoutcomes. Harmonious (but not obsessive) passion
was also hypothesized to be positively associated withlife satisfaction. In Study 2, positive emotions
following a series of team victories in the 2006
World Football Cup were expected to be mostly
positively predicted by harmonious passion, except
for the emotion of pride, which was hypothesized to
be predicted by both types of passion because of its
close link to one’s identity. However, the emotion ofhate towards other teams was expected to be

Figure 2. The role of passion and football–relationship conflict in quality of relationship: Results of the path analysis in Study 3. The dashedline indicates a non-significant path. **P 5 0.01.

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

1290

R. J. Vallerand et al.

positively predicted only by obsessive passion.
Furthermore, it was expected that the emotion of
pride would mediate the relationship between
harmonious and obsessive passion and the adaptive
behaviour of celebrating in the streets, while that ofhate towards opponents would mediate the relationship between obsessive passion and the behaviour ofmaking fun of opposing teams’ fans. Harmonious(but not obsessive) passion was also expected topositively predict life satisfaction and self-esteem.
Finally, in Study 3, it was hypothesized that obsessive(but not harmonious) passion would positively
predict conflict between being a football supporterand relationship with one’s partner, leading to anundermining of one’s relationship satisfaction.
Furthermore, it was predicted that for those not ina relationship, obsessive (but not harmonious)
passion would interfere with being able to find aromantic partner. The results of the present series ofstudies provide support for all these specific hypotheses and lead to a number of conclusions.
Support for the Dualistic Model of Passion as applied tobeing a sports fan
The most general conclusion to be drawn from thepresent findings is that there is strong support for theapplicability of the Dualistic Model of Passion(Vallerand et al., 2003) to being a sports fan. A
number of more specific points may be highlighted
with regard to this general conclusion. First, thepresent research supported the conceptual validity of
the constructs of harmonious and obsessive passion.
Specifically, the results from Studies 1 and 2 revealed
that both harmonious and obsessive passion entail
the internalization of the supported team in one’s
identity. These findings are in line with research andtheory on passion (Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1)
and team identification (Wann & Branscombe,1993) which have shown that the passionate activityof supporting one’s team is indeed part of theperson’s identity. The fact that one’s favourite teamis part of our identity helps understand why people
want to celebrate and tell the outside world that theirteam has won, as the results of Studies 1 and 2
revealed. If the team is part of our identity, then as
Vass (2003) aptly suggested, cheering for the team isalso cheering for self. One can then bask in selfreflected glory (Cialdini et al., 1976) and engage inteam-related behaviours that can also positively
reflect upon one’s self and identity.
A second point dealing with the support for theDualistic Passion Model is that, overall, the two
types of passion were generally found to lead todifferent outcomes. Specifically, as expected, harmonious passion was found to predict adaptive outcomes, while obsessive passion mainly predictedmaladaptive ones. Across the three studies, thesepertained to a variety of cognitive, affective, behavioural, and interpersonal outcomes. Overall, obsessive passion led fans to display rumination andlack of concentration on other activities on game day
and to make ill-advised decisions such as paying an
extortionate price for a game ticket, missing work
and important family events to go to the game, toexperience arguments with others about football,higher levels of conflict between being a fan andone’s love life, and to experience lower life satisfaction, self-esteem, and positive affect (except for theemotion of pride) than harmonious passion. The
emotion of pride is interesting as it pertains to a selfrelated affect (Vallerand, 1987; Weiner, 1985) where
one’s self is being evaluated (see Niedenthal, KrauthGruber, & Ric, 2006) and ‘‘rewarded’’ following
success. Since both types of passion result from theinternalization of a team in one’s identity, it would be
expected that following a series of successes bothtypes of passion should be conducive to feelings of
pride, as oberved in Study 2. What is interesting isthat these findings do not generalize to other affective
outcomes such as feeling happy and enthusiastic, or
to life satisfaction and self-esteem, as only harmonious passion was found to positively predict thesevariables. In line with past research on passion andaffective variables (e.g. Vallerand et al., 2003, Studies
1, 2; Vallerand et al., 2006, 2007), it would thus
appear that the rigid and controlled aspect of one’s
involvement in the activity that is induced byobsessive passion may be responsible for this lackof positive affective outcomes relative to harmonious
passion. Interestingly, this lack of positive affect also
appears to persist even following a series of important
team wins such as those at the World Cup. The
results of Study 2 combined with those of Study 1 –which showed the presence of a strong positive
relationship between obsessive (but not harmonious)
passion and the difficulty of recovering following theteam’s loss – might explain why obsessive passion is
not conducive to high levels of life satisfaction. Fanswith an obsessive passion for supporting their team
may be on an affective roller coaster that iscontingent on their team’s performance, ranging
from high pride following success to persistent
negative affect following a loss. Future research withdaily affective measures using a diary methodology isneeded to test this hypothesis.
The results with respect to life satisfaction deserve
special attention. The findings of Studies 1 and 2
uniformly revealed that harmonious (but not obsessive) passion was positively related to life satisfaction. Contrary to past assertions (e.g. Wann, 2006),
it is not simply any type of strong identity involvement in team support that leads to psychologicaladjustment, but rather an identity that is fuelled by

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

Passion and sports fansharmonious passion. Future research is needed to
identify the psychological processes through which
this positive effect takes place, as well as to document
the directionality of the harmonious passion–lifesatisfaction relationship. Past research on passion
has shown that during task engagement, harmonious
passion is associated with positive affect, whileobsessive passion is unrelated to positive affect andcan even predict negative affect (Mageau et al., 2005;
Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 1). Therefore, one
interesting hypothesis is that engaging in a passionate
activity, such as supporting one’s favourite sportteam, out of harmonious passion leads to the
cumulative experience of positive affect, which overtime leads to increased life satisfaction. Fredrickson
and Joiner (2002) reported the existence of such an
upward spiral whereby positive affect leads to higher
subjective well-being (or life satisfaction), whichleads to subsequent experiences of positive affect,and so on. Such a spiral may be triggered by the
impact of harmonious passion on positive affect.
Further research is needed to test this hypothesis.
Resolving the sport fan paradox: Two different ways of
being passionate for one’s team
A second general conclusion from the present
findings is that they help resolve the paradox thatwas evident in past research on fans and outcomes.
Specifically, past research had revealed that sport
team identification predicts both adaptive (e.g.
psychological adjustment; Wann, 2006) and maladaptive (e.g. aggression; Wann et al., 2003) types ofoutcomes. We believe that this paradox can be
resolved by using the Dualistic Model of Passion.
This model posits that two types of passion underlie
heavy involvement as a sport fan, with harmonious
passion being more conducive to adaptive outcomes
and obsessive passion to maladaptive ones. In linewith the Dualistic Model of Passion, it is suggested
that the adaptive outcomes reported in the STI
literature may be the result of harmonious passion,
while those that are maladaptive may result fromobsessive passion, thus allowing us to resolve thecurrent paradox in the sports fan literature. These
results would be in line with past research thatshowed that the STI Scale might capture more than
one factor (Dimmock, Grove, & Eklund, 2005).
While the results of Study 1 provided clear support
for the present analysis, further research is needed toreplicate these findings with other types of sports andfans.
One implication of the above is that there would
appear to be two general ways to support the teamthat one cares deeply about. The first approachoriginates from harmonious passion and is the mostadaptive. It leads an individual to be fully involved in1291

the process of supporting one’s team, while at thesame time experiencing adaptive outcomes (positive
affect, life satisfaction, etc.) and not engaging inmaladaptive ones (e.g. making fun of fans from otherteams, risking losing one’s job to attend the game,problems with one’s spouse, etc.). Therefore, itwould appear possible to be a sports fan without
being fanatical about it. It is thus not surprising, as
found in the present (Studies 1 and 2) and otherresearch (e.g. Vallerand et al., 2003, Study 2;
Vallerand et al., 2007), that harmonious passion ispositively associated with life satisfaction (or subjective well-being) and self-esteem. Thus, harmonious passion would appear to add to one’s life.
There is a second way through which one can be asports fan and it comes from obsessive passion. Suchan approach entails supporting one’s team in a rigid
way to the point where it may lead people to engage
in maladaptive behaviours both within the sport (e.g.
making fun of other teams’ fans) and outside of it(e.g. risking losing one’s job to go to a game,
experiencing conflict with one’s spouse). Of interestis that the affective rewards derived from this second
approach to supporting one’s sport team seem to beminimal and certainly not as prevalent as withharmonious passion. In light of findings to the effectthat obsessive passion prevents people from fully
enjoying themselves during activity engagement(Vallerand et al., 2003; Study 2 in this paper), leads
to interpersonal conflict (Séguin-Lévesque et al.,
2003; Studies 1 and 3 in this paper), and does notfacilitate life satisfaction and subjective well-being in
general (Vallerand et al., 2007; Studies 1 and 2 inthis paper), such an obsessively passionate approachto supporting one’s team would appear to be lessthan optimal. These overall findings, and especiallythose of Study 2, lead us to hypothesize that it may
be this type of obsessive passionate involvement thatis conducive to hooliganism and other types ofnegative behaviour from fans. Further research isneeded to test this hypothesis.
Passion as a determinant of affectA third and final conclusion from the present
findings is that passion may be best seen as aconstruct that triggers psychological processes,
which in turn lead to adaptive or maladaptive
outcomes depending on the type of passion involved.
Thus, as the results of Study 3 have shown, obsessive(but not harmonious) passion puts fans in a frame ofmind wherein they only focus on football, come toexperience conflict between supporting their footballteam and their spouse, and end up with anunsatisfying partner relationship. A similar sequence
was obtained in Study 2 where the two types ofpassion were found to lead to the emotion of pride,Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

1292

R. J. Vallerand et al.

which predicted going into the street to celebrate.
However, in another sequence, obsessive passion was
found to trigger the emotion of hate, which in turnpredicted making fun of fans of other teams. Such asequence is in line with the work of Weiner (1985,
1995), who has shown that different emotions are
conducive to different types of social behaviour.
What the present findings add to this analysis,
however, is that the two types of passion represent
important affective determinants. The present results
are the first to establish this link between passion,
affect, and social behaviour. Additional research isneeded to better understand the role of passion ineliciting a variety of emotions and in turn how thesetranslate into different types of behaviours in various
settings.
A number of limitations of the present series ofstudies should be underscored. First, the data arecorrelational in nature and, therefore, definitive
conclusions about the role of passion in ‘‘causing’’
outcomes are not warranted. However, recent
research using a cross-lagged panel design revealed
that passion predicted changes in affective andinterpersonal outcomes that took place over time,
while outcomes did not predict changes in passion(Carbonneau, Vallerand, Frenette, Fernet, & Guay,in press). Nevertheless, it would be important in
subsequent research to employ experimental designs to examine more fully various aspects of theDualistic Model on Passion as applied to sports
fans. A second limitation is that the present research
examined only one type of sport, namely football.
Football was selected in the present researchbecause it is the most popular sport worldwide.
Nevertheless, further research is needed to study
the external validity of the present findings withrespect to other sports and physical activities. Third,
it should be highlighted that while a variety ofaffective, behavioural, and interpersonal outcomes
were assessed, all of these were measured throughself-reports. Further research using objective andthird-party sources of information (such as spouses
and friends) is needed to corroborate the present
findings. Fourth, it might also be of interest toassess the relationship between one’s passion forsupporting a team and additional cognition measures (e.g. fans’ types of goal). Fifth, the present
research only assessed the role of passion in two
western cultures (the United Kingdom and Quebec,
Canada). Further research is needed to extend thepresent series of studies to eastern cultures (such as
China) where the role of the personal self andidentity is less salient and that of the collective self
more prevalent (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Sixth,
the present research examined passion towards
supporting football clubs (Studies 1 and 3) andpassion towards supporting an international team(Study 2). However, fans who support a national
club versus an international team might differ
according to their levels of passion or according totheir behaviour (e.g. paying for an inflated ticket
price). Fans supporting an international team(Study 2) reported to be less obsessive (t ¼ 7.77,
P 5 0.001), but just as harmonious, as fanssupporting clubs (Studies 1 and 2) (t ¼ 0.07, N.S.).
However, this difference in obsessive passion did
not appear to affect the results. Our results were inline with the hypotheses derived from the Dualistic
Model of Passion. Nonetheless, future researchmight do well in examining this issue more
extensively. Finally, Study 2 included football fans
who were Canadian immigrants from France and
Italy. It is possible that behaviours and outcomesmight have been different (maybe even more
intense) if we had used fans in their native
countries. Future research should replicate thepresent findings with fans attending a specificnational event occurring in their country of origin.
In summary, the present findings highlight therelevance of the Dualistic Model of Passion forunderstanding the involvement of sports fans. It
appears that the present approach allows us tounderstand the best and the worst of fan behaviours
and outcomes. Further research is needed, however,to more completely understand the intricacies of thepsychological processes through which passion towards supporting one’s sport team develops andchanges over time and contributes to intrapersonaland interpersonal outcomes.
Acknowledgements
This research programme was supported by grants
from the Fonds pour la formation de Chercheurs etl’Aide à la Recherche (FCAR) and the Social
Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada(SSHRC) to the first author.
References
Backman, S. J., & Crompton, J. L. (1991). Using a loyalty matrix
to differentiate between high, spurious, latent, and low
participants in leisure activities. Journal of Park and Recreation
Administration, 9, 117–128.
Carbonneau, N., Vallerand, R. J., Fernet, C., & Guay, F. (inpress). The role of passion for teaching in intra- andinterpersonal outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology.
Cialdini, R. B., Borden, R. J., Thorne, A., Walker, M. R.,
Freeman, S., & Sloan, L. R. (1976). Basking in reflected glory:
Three (football) field studies. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 34, 366–375.
Conway, M., Csank, P. A. R., Holm, S. L., & Blake, C. K. (2000).
On individual differences in rumination on sadness. Journal of
Personality Assessment, 75, 404–435.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1978). Intrinsic rewards and emergent
motivation. In M. R.Lepper & D.Greene (Eds.), The hidden
costs of reward (pp. 205–216). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Downloaded By: [McGill University] At: 17:52 29 March 2009

Passion and sports fansDeci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The ‘‘what’’ and ‘‘why’’ of goalpursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behaviour. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227–268.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985).
The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–76.
Dimmock, J. A., Grove, J. R., & Eklund, R. C. (2005).
Reconceptualizing team identification: New dimensions andtheir relationship to intergroup bias. Group Dynamics: Theory,
Research, and Practice, 9, 75–86.
Fletcher, G. J. O., Simpson, J. A., & Thomas, G. (2000). The
measurement of perceived relationship quality components: A
confirmatory factor analytic approach. Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin, 26, 340–354.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Joiner, T. (2002). Positive emotions trigger
upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychological
Science, 13, 172–175.
Hodgins, H. S., & Knee, R. (2002). The integrating self and conscious
experience. In E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook on selfdetermination research: Theoretical and applied issues (pp. 87–100).
Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
Jackson, S. A., & Marsh, H. W. (1996). Development andvalidation of a scale to measure optimal experience: The Flow
Scale. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 18, 17–35.
Jöreskog, K. G., & Sörbom, D. (2003). LISREL 8.54 for Windows(Computer software). Lincolnwood, IL: Scientific Software
International.
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M.,
West, S. G., & Sheets, V. (2002). A comparison of methods
to test mediation and other intervening variable effects.
Psychological Methods, 7, 83–104.
Mageau, G., & Vallerand, R. J. (2007). The moderating effect ofpassion on the relation between activity engagement andpositive affect. Motivation and Emotion, 31, 373–392.
Mageau, G. A., Vallerand, R. J., Rousseau, F. L., Ratelle, C. F., &Provencher, P. J. (2005). Passion and gambling: Investigating
the divergent affective and cognitive consequences of gambling.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35, 100–118.
Mahony, D. F., Madrigal, R., & Howard, D. (2000). Using thePsychological Commitment to Team (PCT) Scale to segment
sport consumers based on loyalty. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 9,
15–25.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self:
Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253.
Niedenthal, P. M., Krauth-Gruber, S., & Ric, F. (2006).
Psychology of emotion: Interpersonal, experiential, and cognitive
approaches. New York: Psychology Press.
Philippe, F., & Vallerand, R. J. (2008). Prevalence rates ofgambling problems in Montreal, Canada: A look at old adults
and the role of passion. Journal of Gambling Studies, 23, 275–283.
Ratelle, C., Vallerand, R. J., Mageau, G., Rousseau, F. L., &Provencher, P. J. (2004). Passion and gambling: A look at
pathological gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies, 20, 105–119.
Rip, B., Fortin, S., & Vallerand, R. J. (2006). The relationshipbetween passion and injury in dance students. Journal of Dance
Medicine and Science, 10, 14–20.
Robins, R. W., Hendin, H. M., & Trzesniewski, K. H. (2001).
Measuring global self-esteem: Construct validitation of a singleitem measure and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Personality
and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 151–161.
Rousseau, F. L., Vallerand, R. J., Ratelle, C. F., Mageau, G. A., &Provencher, P. J. (2002). Passion and gambling: On thevalidation of the Gambling Passion Scale (GPS). Journal of
Gambling Studies, 18, 45–66.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination andfacilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, andwell-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78.

1293

Schweitzer, K., Zillman, D., Weaver, J. B., & Luttrell, E. S.
(1992). Perception of threatning events in the emotional
aftermath of a televised college football game. Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 36, 75–82.
Séguin-Lévesque, C., Laliberté, M.-L., Pelletier, L. G., Blanchard,C., & Vallerand, R. J. (2003). Harmonious and obsessive
passion for the internet: Their associations with the couple’s
relationships. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 197–221.
Sheldon, K. M. (2002). The self-concordance model of healthy
goal striving: When personal goals correctly represent theperson. In E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of selfdetermination research (pp. 65–86). Rochester, NY: University ofRochester Press.
Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental andnonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7, 422–445.
Steele, C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation:
Sustaining the integrity of the self. Advances in Experimental
Social Psychology, 21, 261–302.
Vallerand, R. J. (1987). Antecedents of self-related affects in sport:
Preliminary evidence on the intuitive-reflective appraisal model.
Journal of Sport Psychology, 9, 161–182.
Vallerand, R. J. (1997). Toward a hierarchical model of intrinsic
and extrinsic motivation. Advances in Experimental and Social
Psychology., 29, 271–360.
Vallerand, R. J. (2008). On the psychology of passion: In search ofwhat makes people’s lives most worth living. Canadian
Psychology, 49, 1–13.
Vallerand, R. J., Blanchard, C. M., Mageau, G. A., Koestner, R.,
Ratelle, C., Léonard, M., et al. (2003). Les passions de l’âme:
On obsessive and harmonious passion. Journal of Personality andSocial Psychology, 85, 756–767.
Vallerand, R. J., Fortier, M. S., & Guay, F. (1997). Selfdetermination and persistence in a real-life setting: Toward a
motivational model of high-school dropout. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1161–1176.
Vallerand, R. J., & Houlfort, N. (2003). Passion at work: Toward a new conceptualization. In D. Skarlicki, S. Gilliland, &D. Steiner (Eds.), Social issues in management (Vol. 3, pp. 175–
204). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.
Vallerand, R. J., & Miquelon, P. (2007). Passion for sport inathletes. In D. Lavallée & S. Jowett (Eds.), Social psychology insport (pp. 249–263). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Vallerand, R. J., Rousseau, F. L., Grouzet, F. M. E., Dumais, A.,
Grenier, S., & Blanchard, C. M. (2006). Passion in sport: A
look at determinants and affective experiences. Journal of Sportand Exercise Psychology, 28, 454–478.
Vallerand, R. J., Salvy, S. J., Mageau, G. A., Denis, P.,
Grouzet, F. M. E., & Blanchard, C. B. (2007). On the role ofpassion in performance. Journal of Personality, 75, 505–534.
Vass, J. S. (2003). Cheering for self: An ethnography of the basketball
event. New York: iUniverse, Inc.
Wann, D. L. (2006). Examining the potential causal relationshipbetween sport team identification and psychological well-being.
Journal of Sport Behaviour, 29, 79–95.
Wann, D. L., & Branscombe, N. R. (1993). Sports fans:
Measuring degree of identification with the team. International
Journal of Sport Psychology, 24, 1–17.
Wann, D. L., Haynes, G., McLean, B., & Pullen, P. (2003). Sportteam identification and willingness to consider anonymous
acts of hostile aggression. Aggressive Behaviour, 29, 406–413.
Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement
motivation and emotion. Psychological Review, 92, 548–573.
Weiner, B. (1995). Inferences of responsibility and social motivation. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 1–47.
Wolfson, S., Wakelin, D., & Lewis, M. (2005). Footballsupporters’ perceptions of their role in the home advantage.
Journal of Sports Sciences, 23, 365–374.