Sport Fan Identification in Obituaries

Abstract

To assess whether sport involvement, particularly as a fan, is central enough to one's self-concept to be mentioned in obituary content, it was hypothesized that a greater proportion of men's obituaries than women's would mention the deceased individual's sport fan identification. Obituaries were randomly selected from 19 newspapers and coded for specific affiliations (e.g., military) and involvement in leisure activities (e.g., sport participation). Consistent with the hypothesis, a chi-squared analysis indicated the men's obituaries (15.2%) were significantly more likely than the women's (5.2%) to mention sport fan identification. A higher proportion of the men's obituaries (24.4%) mentioned sport participation than the women's obituaries (7.4%).