Sports Spectators' Suspense: Affect and Uncertainty in Sports Entertainment |
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| Authors: | Silvia Knobloch‐Westerwick Prabu David Matthew S Eastin Ron Tamborini Dara Greenwood |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Communication, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA;2. Department of Advertising, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA;3. Department of Communication, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824‐1212 USA;4. Department of Communication Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 USA |
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| Abstract: | To explain the attraction to sports in the media, suspense theory is extended to predict suspense during sports exposure. Viewers (n = 113) of a college football game in an intense rivalry context reported their responses to the game during commercial breaks. Multilevel analysis of the longitudinal data shows that shifts in both positive and negative affect influence suspense of supporters of both teams. Likewise, affective dispositions (rooting for a team) emerge as precondition for greater suspense, regardless of specific team preference, even though habitual fan commitment did not affect suspense. Predictions regarding increased suspense due to lower certainty of the favored team's victory and due to smaller score difference were only corroborated for supporters of the winning team. |
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