Sport fans’cognitive dissonance reduction strategies depending on the levels of cognitive dissonance and team identification: Focusing on BIRFing and CORFing

This study aimed to explore the main and interaction effects of cognitive dissonance and team identification on sport fans’ cognitive dissonance reduction strategies(BIRFing and CORFing). For this purpose, a 2(cognitive dissonance: high/low) × 2(team identification: high/low) factorial design was used with four experimental conditions. Two-way ANOVAs(n=324) were conducted to examine the main and interaction effects of the two independent variables on sport fans’ BIRFing and CORFing. The study found that there was a main effect of cognitive dissonance on CORFing, and also a main effect of team identification on both BIRFing and CORFing. The study also revealed that there were interaction effects of cognitive dissonance and team identification on both BIRFing and CORFing. Specifically, the high level of cognitive dissonance was more effective in BIRFing for highly identified fans, while the low level of cognitive dissonance was more effective in both BIRFing and CORFing for less identified fans. Based on these results, sport teams need to develop sophisticated marketing strategies that maximize team identification and minimize cognitive dissonance.