TY - JOUR
T1 - Everyone else is doing it
T2 - The association between social identity and susceptibility to peer influence in NCAA athletes
AU - Graupensperger, Scott A.
AU - Benson, Alex J.
AU - Evans, M. Blair
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was funded by an NCAA Graduate Student Research Grant to support the study of intercollegiate athletics. The first author is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (award number TL1 TR002016).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Human Kinetics, Inc.
PY - 2018/6/1
Y1 - 2018/6/1
N2 - The authors examined athletes' conformity to teammates' risky behaviors through a performance-based manipulation paradigm. They hypothesized that athletes who strongly identified with their team would be at increased risk of conforming to teammates' behaviors. Athletes (N = 379) from 23 intact National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) teams completed surveys (e.g., social identity) and reported the extent to which they would engage in risky behavior scenarios (e.g., drinking and driving). Then, researchers displayed ostensible responses that were manipulated to appear as though teammates reported high engagement in the risky behaviors. Finally, athletes again responded to the hypothetical scenarios and a conformity index was created. Results indicated that social identity, at both individual and group levels, positively predicted conformity- indicating that athletes with stronger social identities are more susceptible to peer influence. Although these findings highlight a pernicious aspect of social identity, they also provide insight into how group-level processes could be leveraged to prevent risky behaviors in student-athletes.
AB - The authors examined athletes' conformity to teammates' risky behaviors through a performance-based manipulation paradigm. They hypothesized that athletes who strongly identified with their team would be at increased risk of conforming to teammates' behaviors. Athletes (N = 379) from 23 intact National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) teams completed surveys (e.g., social identity) and reported the extent to which they would engage in risky behavior scenarios (e.g., drinking and driving). Then, researchers displayed ostensible responses that were manipulated to appear as though teammates reported high engagement in the risky behaviors. Finally, athletes again responded to the hypothetical scenarios and a conformity index was created. Results indicated that social identity, at both individual and group levels, positively predicted conformity- indicating that athletes with stronger social identities are more susceptible to peer influence. Although these findings highlight a pernicious aspect of social identity, they also provide insight into how group-level processes could be leveraged to prevent risky behaviors in student-athletes.
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U2 - 10.1123/jsep.2017-0339
DO - 10.1123/jsep.2017-0339
M3 - Article
C2 - 30001165
AN - SCOPUS:85051122706
SN - 0895-2779
VL - 40
SP - 117
EP - 127
JO - Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
JF - Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
IS - 3
ER -