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The influence of social identity theory on voting behavior in the FIFA Ballon d’Or competition

Morsinkhof, J.B. (2014) The influence of social identity theory on voting behavior in the FIFA Ballon d’Or competition.

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Abstract:Every year again, there seems to be controversy about the winner and the voting motives of the voters (bonds coaches, captains of national teams and journalists) in the FIFA Ballon d’Or competition. This thesis examines whether the social identity theory and the associating concept of in group favoritism can explain non rational voting behavior of voting captains, it examines if a captain of national a team tends to votes for players playing at the same position as he does. Voting data released by the FIFA are used to analyze the voting pattern of the captains and to compare them to the voting patterns of the bonds coaches and journalists. The choice is made not to try to find a causal relationship between playing at a certain position and voting for a player playing at that position, but to compare the voting patterns of the three voting categories and find out if the voting pattern of the captains deviates from the voting patterns of the bonds coaches and journalists, because the social identity theory and in-group favoritism are only applicable on the captains. Indications are found that there might be a relationship between the position of the captain and the player he votes for. However, it isn’t sure whether these indications can be explained by the social identity theory. The results also imply that the voting behavior of the journalists deviate the most from the patterns of the other categories, meaning that there may be other, stronger, causes influencing voting behavior in the FIFA Ballon d’Or competition.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:70 social sciences in general, 85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:International Business Administration BSc (50952)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/66184
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