Controllability and stability in the self-serving attributions of sport spectators.

Spectators often attribute their athletic team's victories to internal causes and its losses to external causes (e.g., A. H. Hastorf & H. Cantril, 1954; R. R. Lau, 1984; L. Mann, 1974). This self-serving attributional pattern is most common among fans with a strong psychological attachment to their team (D. L. Wann & T. J. Dolan, 1994). The authors examined the relationships among identification, game outcome, and controllable and stable attributions. Their 1st hypothesis was that high-identification fans after a victory, compared with high-identification fans after a loss and low-identification fans after either outcome, would be more likely to exhibit self-serving attributional patterns by attributing their team's successes to controllable and stable causes. Their 2nd hypothesis was that high-identification fans would be more likely than low-identification fans to attribute their team's successes to internal causes and its failures to external causes. U.S. college students high and low in identification first watched their university's men's basketball team win or lose a contest and then completed measures of identification and attribution. The results confirmed the hypotheses.

Reduction of anxiety about death: need for beliefs about immortality.

It was hypothesized that individuals who are reminded of their own mortality will experience anxiety which is reduced by an increased need for belief in immortality. A questionnaire assessing the need for literal and two forms of symbolic immortality was developed. Analysis showed that awareness of mortality increased scores on the need for literal immortality but not on either form of symbolic immortality.