Perceptions of Morality in Response to Death Threats in Athletics
Start Date
August 2025
End Date
August 2025
Location
ALT 306
Abstract
As sports culture continues to integrate into daily online interactions of individuals across social media platforms, the morality surrounding digital fan behavior requires further investigation, especially when cyberthreats occur. Threats continue to emerge as an alarmingly normalized reaction to sports-related perceived losses, and digital abuse involving athletes continues to rise (Kearns et al., 2023). Anonymity and group identity online drive individuals to engage in harmful behavior; research indicates when people feel invisible and part of a larger fanbase, they become less accountable for their actions, thus more likely to conform (Chan et al., 2022). Previous data suggest that forty percent of victims of online abuse experienced damage to their self-esteem (Penza, 2018), and game officials and players are no exception to this pattern. Cultural and political contexts shape how online threats are interpreted (Fisher & Howard, 2024); in sports, factors like game stakes and sport type may shift how fans evaluate the morality of a death threat. Despite their potential impact, online threats are often dismissed as harmless or unserious (Penza, 2018), which can downplay their real psychological and social consequences.
The present research study aims to examine how individuals perceive the morality of death threats involving sport personnel, and how these perceptions are influenced by the status of the individual (professional vs. recreational), their role (player vs. referee), and sport type (aggressive vs. non-aggressive). After reading a randomly assigned vignette, participants will complete the Attribution of Blame scale (Gudjonsson, 1989) and a standard punishment scale developed by the researchers.
Perceptions of Morality in Response to Death Threats in Athletics
ALT 306
As sports culture continues to integrate into daily online interactions of individuals across social media platforms, the morality surrounding digital fan behavior requires further investigation, especially when cyberthreats occur. Threats continue to emerge as an alarmingly normalized reaction to sports-related perceived losses, and digital abuse involving athletes continues to rise (Kearns et al., 2023). Anonymity and group identity online drive individuals to engage in harmful behavior; research indicates when people feel invisible and part of a larger fanbase, they become less accountable for their actions, thus more likely to conform (Chan et al., 2022). Previous data suggest that forty percent of victims of online abuse experienced damage to their self-esteem (Penza, 2018), and game officials and players are no exception to this pattern. Cultural and political contexts shape how online threats are interpreted (Fisher & Howard, 2024); in sports, factors like game stakes and sport type may shift how fans evaluate the morality of a death threat. Despite their potential impact, online threats are often dismissed as harmless or unserious (Penza, 2018), which can downplay their real psychological and social consequences.
The present research study aims to examine how individuals perceive the morality of death threats involving sport personnel, and how these perceptions are influenced by the status of the individual (professional vs. recreational), their role (player vs. referee), and sport type (aggressive vs. non-aggressive). After reading a randomly assigned vignette, participants will complete the Attribution of Blame scale (Gudjonsson, 1989) and a standard punishment scale developed by the researchers.
