Sport values, personal values and antisocial behavior in sport

Abstract

A core aspect of morality concerns behavior towards others. To better understand this issue, we investigated the values-behavior relationship. In a cross-sectional study design, 165 team sport athletes rated the importance of Lee's sport values and Schwartz's basic personal values and reported their frequency of antisocial behavior in sport. With sport values, antisocial behavior was negatively correlated with moral values but positively correlated with status values. With personal values, antisocial behavior was negatively correlated with self-transcendence and conservation values but positively correlated with self-enhancement values. In terms of the relative importance of values, competence and moral were more important than status sport values, whereas self-transcendence and openness to change were more important than conservation and self-enhancement personal values. In terms of the conceptual link across contexts, comparisons of sport and personal values confirmed strong overlap between status and self-enhancement values, competence and openness to change values, and moral and self-transcendence values. In conclusion, antisocial behavior was related to both sport and personal values, and, in line with theory and evidence, the relationship between values and antisocial behavior resembled an unethicality profile.