A crisis related analysis of perceived spectators' behavior in competition.

Abstract

Spectator behavior in competition is analyzed in terms of spectators' response (positive or negative), or lack of response in reaction to a player's action, or which is independent of a player's action, in a home or away game. This study investigated the perceived contribution of these variables to extreme psychological arousal states (crisis, noncrisis). Forty-eight elite ball-game players responded to a questionnaire asking them to estimate the occurrence probability of the Bayesian combinations among these variables under crisis and noncrisis conditions. An RM-ANOVA procedure revealed that under the crisis condition a negative response, an unsuccessful action, and a home game were rated as more probable, whereas under the noncrisis condition the reverse would be true. The athlete's psychological state was more strongly related to spectator response than to game location or athlete's action. Results are discussed theoretically in reference to the crisis construct.