Cheating Acceptability in Sports: Overconformity, Media Consumption, and Bracketed Morality

Abstract

Intriguingly, despite repetitive occurrences of unethical and immoral behaviors emanated by athletes, the annual attendance of spectators for Korean professional baseball league showed gradual increment. This paradoxical phenomenon raises a question whether if the rise of spectator disregard of cheating, is an implication of spectators learning to accept cheating that purportedly has infiltrated sports. In this concept, the purpose of this research is to examine predictors of cheating acceptability pivoting on the concept of bracketed morality, overconformity, and media consumption. In other words, the objective of this research is to investigate the influence and correlation of bracketed morality, overconformity, and media consumption to cheating acceptability. The online survey was conducted in the context of bracketed morality to achieve the purpose of this study, and the target population for the study was professional Korean baseball league spectators. A total of 392 individuals participated in the online survey with a self-administration method which was used as data for research analysis. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics analysis and reliability analysis utilizing SPSS 22.0, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and validity analysis with AMOS 22.0. After CFA had been conducted, the structural equation model (SEM) analysis was applied to verify the research hypothesis. The results of the hypothesis in the research were as follows: Higher overconformity influenced antisocial morality, and cheating acceptability positively correlated with media consumption and higher antisocial morality. Comparing with antisocial morality, the impact of overconformity and media consumption was positively and negatively correlated respectively. Moreover, higher prosocial morality was negatively correlated with cheating acceptability. The mediation test shows a sole partial mediation effect of antisocial morality between overconformity and cheating acceptability. In conclusion, both antisocial and prosocial morality approves the bracketed morality to be an effect on cheating acceptability. Baseball spectators with high antisocial morality can be analyzed as

antisocial behavior directed toward opponents was more likely to be carried out in sports setting than the similar behavior in a daily life setting. Such moral behavior and judgments are deemed to be more acceptable alongside with cheating and watch baseball games disregard of cheating. The study is among first endeavors to apply the concept of bracketed morality in sports management field specifically geared towards sports spectators. By grafting the concept from the subject of athletes perspective on to the sports spectators perspective, the study is worthwhile to examine the suitability of the concept. Thus, this theoretical analysis provides socio-cultural and psychological qualification as well to genuinely explain why sports spectators are in parallel with athletes on the bracketed morality.

Keyword : cheating acceptability, bracketed morality, overconformity, media consumption Student Number : 2015-23069