An Examination of the Social and Political Attitudes of College Student-Athletes

As the prominence of sport in our culture continues to increase, athletes increasingly possess a platform from which to influence the attitudes and opinions of others. In recent years, athletes have used such platforms to make social and political statements and have garnered much attention in doing so. With these instances in mind, the goal of this study was to gain an understanding of some of the social and political attitudes of college athletes. College athletes are a unique peer group of college students and have not yet been studied in regards to social and political attitudes. The survey instrument used in this study was modified from two other measures, the Quick Discrimination Index and the Conservatism-Liberalism Scale. The examination of social and political attitudes was delimited to sixteen questions that focused on community, gender, and race attitudes. The second section of the survey asked respondents to self-report levels of interest in and influences on their social and political attitudes. The survey was available online and the sample was taken from students and student-athletes at a mid-size, mid-Atlantic, Division I state university. Using ANOVAs, significant differences were found between students and student athletes, males and females (both athletes and non-athletes), revenue generating and nonrevenue generating sport athletes, team sport athletes and individual sport athletes, and based on academic colleges. The majority (over 60%) of athletes identified themselves as moderate or liberal and 59% reported interest in social and political issues. The results of the study are not generalizable, but the study does indicate that athletes may have some significantly different social and political attitudes than their college peers. Further research is necessary in order to determine if significant differences do exist between college students and student-athletes.