Legitimation of Violence in Swedish Football Supporters: The Mediational Relationship Between Need for Cognitive Closure, Group Identity and Dehumanization

Abstract: Football supporters’ violence in Sweden is a current societal issue, which lacks experimental investigations. The current study aims to address this gap by investigating social and cognitive factors in order to better understand the mechanisms behind legitimation of violence towards supporters of the opposing team (the out-group). A football supporter and a social science student samples answered an online survey to assess the differential relationship between need for closure, social identification, dehumanization and legitimation of violence for both samples. Results indicate a significant difference between the two samples on all the variables of interest. Moreover, a mediation analysis indicates that it is through a high level of social identification that supporters with high need for cognitive closure dehumanize supporters from the opposing team, however, this mediational relationship was not found for the student sample. Finally, the interaction analysis shows that there is a positive relationship between dehumanization and legitimation of violence for the supporters but not for the students. This study brings a better understanding of the dynamic behind legitimation of violence towards supporters from opposing teams. Furthermore, it illustrates the impact of studying different groups (students versus real groups) in relation to extreme behaviors. Indeed, this study suggests that real groups might carry stronger group values and beliefs than student groups, which might affect not only the extent of members’ identification with their in-group, but also members’ perception of the out-group. Implications of the findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.