Why Is There So Much Violence In Football?

Why is there so much violence in football ? We see many news stories of violent clashes between rival fans. We try to answer the question in this article.

Many people are often confused and shocked as to why this violent behavior takes place. It is difficult to understand why violence in football occurs.

In the world of psychology, the collective social behavior of football fans has been studied for years. In this article, we try to shed light on the intentions behind this violent and aggressive behavior.

Violence in football

To explain violence in football, we must first look at the deindividualizing process. Although this process does not explain the violence, the process explains the collective group behavior.

Imagine you are at a football game and a player from the rival team is nearby. If you intended to offend him, but you were surrounded by rival fans, you probably would not do it. But what would happen if you were surrounded by fans from your own team?

If the fans around you also support your team, you might end up attacking the player from the rival team verbally. What is the difference between these two situations? Anonymity and accountability. 

Moral, Gómez, and Canto (2004) pointed out: “In these situations, anonymity, the group, and the reduced, individual self-awareness can cause people to exhibit unrestrained, impulsive, and illegal behavior.”

When we enjoy anonymity, we become more prone to violent acts. If no one knew it was us who offended them, we would be more likely to do so than if all the attention was on us.

When we are in a group, it reduces our self-awareness as we are able to transfer our responsibility to the group. We stop being ourselves and become part of the group instead.

Conformity

Conformity is another process that can explain violence during football matches. This process consists of changing a person’s response and bringing it closer to the group’s response. In other words, we change our behavior depending on the group.

Paéz and Campos noted: “Conformity is the change of belief or behavior due to peer pressure. It changes the disposition of the individual in relation to norms established by the group in question. ”

We can find different types of norms in groups. Among them are the descriptive norm, which indicates how a person behaves in the group, and the prescribed norm, which indicates how a person is expected to behave.

Conformity is a form of regulatory influence as the individual is able to change his behavior to adapt to the group. They are even able to behave the opposite of how they would behave individually.

If our group behaves violently, we are likely to adopt the same behavior. This conformity increases as the group’s control over its members and their interdependence increases. It also increases when there is a certain level of uncertainty or ambiguity. We adopt the group’s behavior patterns when we do not know what else to do.

Conformity increases when there are similarities between the group and the individual. If a person identifies with a football team and with a violent ideology in a fan group, they are more likely to agree to behave violently.

Concluding remarks on violence in football

If a person has not learned how to resolve his differences, but he has instead become accustomed to resolving them through violence, then he will probably act violently when faced with disagreements. Therefore, a good upbringing can help prevent this behavior.

A rich inner world and an open, reflective mind can also help us strengthen ourselves and reduce our need to be part of a group.

In many cases, there is a hidden lack of self-esteem behind this need, which we try to alleviate by being part of a group. The feeling of belonging to a place gives us an emotional satisfaction. Therefore, if a person has not developed an inner sense of satisfaction, he will search for it from the outside.

It is essential to get to know ourselves so that we can avoid becoming part of violent groups. The lower our self-esteem is, and the “stronger” the group is, the more we will feel that we belong to the group. But if we learn to respect ourselves and others, these situations will be a thing of the past.