The "noble" sports fan: the relationships between team identification, self-esteem, and aggression.

Authors have disagreed on whether sports spectating has positive or negative consequences for individuals and society. Based on Smith's 1988 discussion of "the noble sports fan," the current research tested the prediction that identification with a sports team would be positively related to collective or group's self-esteem and not related to trait scores of aggression. The hypothesis was confirmed. Discussion centers on patterns of the observed correlations.