Good Sports or Sore Losers: Sports Fans and Perceptions of Election Legitimacy

Abstract What makes people more likely to view electoral defeats as legitimate? In this paper I examine the influence of legitimating rituals, public behavior from competitors that signal that a competition is conducted fairly. Building on social learning theory, I predict that observing legitimating rituals in even ostensibly apolitical competitions increases perceptions of election legitimacy. In the US, legitimating rituals are most commonly observed when watching televised team sports. Using a pre-post panel study of the 2020 election, as well as an experimental design manipulating exposure to legitimating rituals in both sports and politics, I test the theory that exposure to legitimizing rituals of either kind increases perceptions that an election outcome was legitimate.