The role of the categorization process on the influence of a famous football player on the evaluations of a football team

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the categorization of a football player influences the evaluations of a football team among participants from Mexico and to test for the moderating role of need for closure. In order to test the hypotheses, the authors conduct two experiments. Design/methodology/approach The authors used an empirimental approach. Specifically in the experimental condition, the authors brought to mind, in one condition, the team membership of Lionel Messi and assessed the evaluations of Barcelona FC. In the control condition, the authors did not bring to mind the membership of Lionel Messi and only assessed the evaluations of Barcelona FC. Findings Results from two experiments showed that Barcelona FC obtained better evaluations when participants assigned Messi as one of its players. Evaluations were not moderated by a variable known to influence information processing such as need for closure. Originality/value It is a psychological truism that human judgments are context dependent. How good one judges a football team to be, depends not only on the specific qualities of the team, but also on the standard of comparison used to make that judgment. Surprisingly, scant attention has been given to context effects in team or player evaluations (see Puente-Diaz and Puente-Diaz, 2014 for an exception). The investigation seeks to fill this gap.