They look at external factors, such as a sport official s call, as an explanation for their team s loss. Not only does Walker blame the Hoosier s slump on Ted Valentine, the official, who is ruining college basketball, but he also goes so far as to blame Coach Knight s technical on Valentine s bias toward him and the team. Thus, it is apparent that Walker is blaming the Hoosier s poor season on an official. Thus, it is apparent that Kristine not only believes that she affiliates with the best of the best, but she also takes her team to the highest level by giving it this superlative rating. A final behavior social psychologists tend to examine in sport fans is their knowledge about a team.
High identifiers tend to exhibit more knowledge than low identifiers.
For example, not only is Powell informed about Indiana s basketball players graduation rates and power rating, but he also has a link to the IU fighting song. Thus, Powell is a fan who knows not just statistics, but he also knows personal information about the players. After looking at a sport fan s webpage, social psychologists can identify some characteristics of that fan. They may be able to tell whether a sport fan is BIRGing, CORFing, or blaming a team s defeat on external factors. The social identity of intergroup behavior.