PhD, Associate Professor M.A. Beduleva¹
Dr.Hab., Professor V.L. Nazarov¹
Dr.Hab. A.V. Ponomarev¹
PhD, Associate Professor P.E. Suslonov^1
1Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg

Keywords: sport extremism, socio-psychological matrix, fanaticism, xenophobia

Background. Sport extremism may be analyzed as a specific variety of extremist behaviours, with some analysts tending to rank it with irrational forms of extremism. Criminologist S.M. Inshakov, for instance, believes that specificity of one or another form of sport extremism is determined by motivations for the extremist behaviours, with the behavioural deviations, in their turn, largely dictated by the emotionally tense conditions in the relevant social environments [1, p. 14], as follows:

• It is the high competitiveness in the modern sport events that triggers high emotionality of participants and spectators, with the relevant emotional peaks. However calm and balanced in the everyday life some fans may be, in the emotionally tense situations many of them tend to behave totally different, with heavy emotional outbursts.
• Sport supporting culture favours high emotionality boosted by the collective/ group mindsets, expectations and believes, with the joint emotions going viral to multiply the feelings due to a sort of emotional communication, self-fulfilment, outbursts and abreactions.
• Sport behaviours are basically driven by the relevant natural instincts. Despite the fact that many fans do not do sports at all, they still are fully engaged in the sporting process striving to support their favourites emotionally if not physically. In other words, the process may be described as emotional drive and full emotional engagement in the competitive process. The mental addiction may be classified into the mental (intellectual/ emotional) activity of the fans.
• No fan may be analysed as a phenomenon beyond the favoured team sport game. Many authors, including F.N. Ilyasov, consider the relevant behaviours in the context of the ‘need for game’ with the ‘game behaviours’ viewed as the self-sufficient and inclusive behavioural models [1, pp. 38-52].
• As provided by Y.A. Reprintseva, the notion and interpretation of honour in games (including children’s games) largely means respect to the rules of the game and strict execution of the individual role in the game [2, pp. 383-393], with every game requiring a total commitment from each player and fan, and with every attempted or really committed violation of the rules of the game triggering the most acute conflicts.

• When the fan associations are linked to the relevant young people’s subcultures, due consideration shall be made for the emotional and mental background of this age group. Presently the relevant aspects of the youth subcultures are subject to a special research, with a high priority to the specific youth mentality aspects and backgrounds with the relevant feelings, emotions and volitional infrastructure, mental and physiological specifics of this age group. It should be noted that researchers make an emphasis on the age group rather than individual young people’s associations [4, pp. 46-52].

It may be concluded that the phenomenon of the sport fans’ grouping and subcultures dominated by the young people is fraught with the relevant psychological backgrounds and matrices facilitating the extremist behaviours.

A special emphasis in the studies of modern sport extremism shall be made on the specific type of individual psychology making the person sensitive and prone to the extremist outbursts. Extremism may be defined as the special mindset focused on practical emotional actions rather than a radical idea as such [5, pp. 215-218].  Therefore, we believe that analyses of the relevant social and psychological matrices are critical for a deeper and comprehensive understanding of modern sport extremism.

Objective of the study was to analyse the indications and specifics of the socio-psychological matrices of modern sport extremism.

Study results and discussion. Socio-psychological matrix may be defined as the specific mindset making the individual prepared for unsocial actions, with such a socio-psychological matrix including elements of fanaticism and xenophobia forming a basis of sport extremism [6, pp. 139-143]. 

Fanatic or fan, philosophically speaking, may be defined as an individual governed and driven by some obsessive overvalued idea(s). Specific traits of the individual consciousness that give rise to the fanatic behavioural models may be listed as follows:

(1) Obsessive ideas are ranked on top of the fanatic’s beliefs inspiring his life with the relevant goals and senses making him/her prepared to sacrifice own life and lives of other people for these ideas;

(2) Fanatic’s world outlook and perception is designed in the so-called tunnel format i.e. the data inflow is filtered to screen out everything that contradicts the core idea;

(3) Fanatic never accepts tolerance as the fundamental modern social value and, hence, never recognizes the right of another person for a different view;

(4) Fanaticism tends to cluster into groups for the reason that fanatics need mutual support, indoctrination and inspiration by the joint emotionality of the likeminded group;

(5) Fanatics may not be aggressive in everyday interpersonal communication in the situations other than the ones with concern to their obsessive ideas and core beliefs;

(6) Fanatics are dominated by the people prone to proselytism that means conversion of others in own opinions and beliefs to expand the support base for the obsessive idea; and

(7) It should be emphasized that any socio-political idea, model or idolized person may become a subject for obsession for fanaticism and, hence, it may be defined as a quasi-devotional obsession, particularly in case of sport extremism.

The behavioural models that expose fanatics to extreme risks in their clashes are driven by largely irrational concepts directly evoked by the relevant obsessive ideas. Xenophobic mindsets are driven by intolerance to some group(s) of individuals and may, in their extremes, easily grow up to hatred with its open and destructive aggression and violence that is so typical for any xenophobia.

The hatred making an individual prepared for violence is normally manifested in at least the following individual traits:

• Emotional discomfort in relations with other social groups, with the individual being unable to explain the reasons for own feel of discomfort;
• Negative stereotype easily applied by the individual to any other groups to label them as ‘all bad’;
• Expectance of hostilities and conspiracy from other groups perceived as ‘dangerous for us’; and
• Readiness for active aggression and violence in opposition with counter groups with the relevant aggressive slogans like ‘hit first’, ‘attack to prevent their attack’ etc.

Therefore, xenophobic mindsets may be described as naturally dominated by the readiness for active aggression and violence against other social groups including sport fan groups. The xenophobic behavioural models dominating in the young sport fan subcultures have been subject to a few sociological surveys designed to analyse modern sport extremism. D.Y. Narkhov and V.V. Ilyin, for instance, found in their study that a certain cultural borderline was drawn by the young respondents of Yekaterinburg city and Sverdlovsk region that they are prepared to defend; since one of four was found to demonstrate intolerance to different ethnic/ cultural groups; and one of five respondents – to different religious groups. The authors also mentioned that this intolerance in the young sport fan communities cannot be explained by some objective socio-cultural reasons (since the Urals on the whole and Yekaterinburg in particular have deep and sustainable historical record and tradition of respect and constructive interreligious and intercultural dialogues [7, p. 110]), so the reasons are purely socio-psychological. We can only agree with this statement and do believe that the intolerance is largely fostered by the relevant socio-psychological backgrounds.

Conclusion. Our analysis of modern sport extremism and the sport fan cultures shows that originally no expressed mindsets focused on aggression and violence can be easily found in the fan groups as the sport teamwork, high psychical stresses, excessive emotionality, sensitivity and touchiness to imaginary offences in the young peoples’ groups are initially mostly free of aggressive negativism and unsocial biases. Excessive frustrations due to violations of the rules of the game, failures/ losses of their favourite players or teams are normally responded by the relevant group emotions in the fan communities that may occasionally force them go beyond the red lines and commit offences. The core problem, however, is the socio-psychological matrix of fanaticism and xenophobia that may be cultivated in the fan communities to culminate in hatred and hostility to different ‘enemy’ sport support groups.

References

1. Inshakov S.M. Kriminologiya. Uchebnik [Criminology. Textbook]. Moscow: Yurisprudentsiya publ., 2000, 432 p.
2. Ilyasov F.N. Motivatsiya i aktivnost futbolnykh bolelschikov [Motivation and activity of football fans]. Sotsialnye issledovaniya, 2016, no. 3.
3. Reprintseva E.A. Pedagogika igry: teoriya, istoriya, praktika [Game pedagogics: theory, history, practice]. Kursk: KSU publ., 2005, 421 p.
4. Pavlovskiy I.R. Sotsiologiya molodezhi i yuvenologiya [Youth sociology and juvenology]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya, 1999, no. 5.
5. Suslonov P.E. Teoretiko-metodologicheskie aspekty izucheniya sotsialnoy psikhologii politicheskogo ekstremizma i terrorizma [Theoretical and methodological aspects of studying social psychology of political extremism and terrorism]. Gumanitarnye, sotsialno-ekonomicheskie i obschestvennye nauki, Krasnodar: Nauka i obrazovanie, 2014, no. 8.
6. Suslonov P.E. Rol i zadachi organov vnutrennikh del po organizatsii protivodeystviya prestupnosti ekstremistskoy napravlennosti v Rossiyskoy Federatsii [The role and tasks of anti-extremism programs of internal affairs bodies in the Russian Federation]. Yekaterinburg: Ural Law Institute of MIA Russia publ., 2015, 153 p.
7. Narkhov D.Y., Ilyinykh V.V. Proyavlenie sportivnogo ekstremizma v molodezhnoy srede: itogi sotsiologicheskogo issledovaniya (dekabr 2011 – fevral 2013 g. [Sport extremism in youth environment: sociological survey results (December 2011 - February 2013)]. Yekaterinburg: UU publ., 2013, 197 p.

Corresponding author: d_narkhov@mail.ru

Abstract

The study analyses the indications and specifics of the socio-psychological matrix of modern sport extremism with a special emphasis on the social prerequisites for the growing social tension and, as a result, behavioural deviations and extremist actions in the fan communities. The study demonstrates that it is the psychological type prone to the extremist behaviour and having a certain mindset that strives to realize itself in the sport extremism; and gives evidence of modern sport extremism being based on the relevant socio-psychological grounds of complex multisided structure. It is further demonstrated that modern sport extremism is largely driven by the relevant socio-psychological matrix dominated by the elements of fanaticism and xenophobia. The study analyses the meanings of fanaticism and xenophobia in the context of modern sport extremism; and formulates the dominating models of consciousness potentially indicative of the individual predispositions to fanaticism and xenophobia. The authors come to a conclusion that modern sport extremism is largely due to the reasons and conditions facilitating the relevant socio-psychological matrices that grow and shape up fanaticism and xenophobia culminating in the relevant behavioural models driven by hatred and hostility to the ‘enemy’ sport communities. A special emphasis is recommended to be made on the systemic efforts to prevent and mitigate sport extremism with due consideration for its socio-psychological matrixes and specifics.