ABSTRACT

Conspiracy theories arise during important societal and political events, with negative consequences. Yet, conspiracy theories remain to be investigated in the context of sporting tournaments, in spite of the importance of such events in contemporary societies. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, conspiracy theories alleging that the newly introduced video Assistant Referee (VAR) was used with malevolent motives gained popularity online. In this paper, we used a Twitter content analysis to explore VAR conspiracy theories during the World Cup (N = 2,768 tweets). Conspiracy tweets peaked after eliminations of some teams and were strongly associated with labels referring to self-categorization at the group-level, supporting the notion that conspiracy beliefs are triggered by contexts threatening one’s social identity. Conspiracy tweets were also correlated with tweets expressing skepticism or defiance against the VAR, suggesting that conspiracy beliefs might be related to sport fans’ other identity management strategies. Finally, we drew an intergroup typology of VAR conspiracy beliefs’ recurrent figures, highlighting that higher ordered categorization helped conspiracy narratives and content to adapt throughout the tournament. We discuss the identity management strategy status of sport fans’ conspiracy beliefs.

摘要

阴谋论在重要的社会和政治事件中出现，并带来负面后果。然而，尽管体育赛事在当代社会中很重要，但阴谋论仍有待在体育赛事的背景下进行研究。2018年世界杯期间，网络上盛传新推出的视频助理裁判（VAR）被恶意使用的阴谋论。在本文中，我们使用 Twitter 内容分析来探讨世界杯期间的 VAR 阴谋论（N= 2,768 条推文）。阴谋论推文在一些队伍被淘汰后达到顶峰，并与群体层面的自我分类标签密切相关，支持阴谋论信念是由威胁个人社会身份的环境引发的这一观点。阴谋推文还与表达对 VAR 的怀疑或蔑视的推文相关，这表明阴谋论信念可能与体育迷的其他身份管理策略有关。最后，我们绘制了 VAR 阴谋论信念反复出现的数据的组间类型，强调更高层次的分类有助于阴谋叙事和内容适应整个锦标赛。我们讨论了体育迷阴谋信仰的身份管理策略现状。