Jaded fans? An 8-8-88 uprising: IU experts discuss Olympics topics
Skeptical but forgiving. Even in non-Olympic years, sports fans -- and even casual followers -- cannot avoid news stories about high-profile professional and amateur athletes found guilty of or charged with using illegal, performance-enhancing drugs. It's no surprise that Americans might watch the Olympics with a healthy dose of skepticism. "It's gotten to the point where almost any strong athletic performance is dubious," said Edward R. Hirt, a psychology professor at Indiana University and an expert on fan behavior. "It changes our whole attitude about how much we want to get involved. If we're expecting to be disappointed, we want to be disengaged a little so we won't be disappointed." Still, unlike professional sports, which we're often reminded are businesses, the Olympics are supposed to be about amateur athletes focusing on a chance of a lifetime. Hirt said the back stories -- the sacrifices some athletes make to compete and their motivation -- often are important and inspiring. Americans, he says, want to believe the best, particularly when it comes to likable athletes and favored sports. "We object to scrutiny and innuendo about a liked performer or athlete," Hirt said, "but display an entirely different level of skepticism and doubt about someone we don't like." And when athletes -- even heroes -- make a mistake, Americans often are sympathetic and forgiving, ready for a good comeback story or tale of resurrection. But, Hirt said, when athletes do not own up to the truth, or if they only apologize when caught after years of denials, they get little sympathy. A more likely reaction is, "You lied about it and now you want us want to believe that you're sorry?"
Hirt's research involving fan behavior has focused on the reasons fans have such profound allegiances to various teams and players and what they derive from this association. Hirt can be reached at 812-855-4815 and ehirt@indiana.edu.
More Olympics insights
- To read what IU professors have to say about controversial high-tech swimsuits, Tibetan independence, China's efforts to protect endangered species, a faulty track & field starting system, and sports law, please visit http://newsinfo.iu.edu/tips/page/normal/8331.html.
- To read what IU professors have to say about pollution, Chinese image issues and the impact controversy involving China can have on athletes, please visit http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/7980.html.
8-8-08. A significant anniversary in Burma. Friday's date, selected for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, may be seen as propitious in China. But for supporters of human rights in China's neighbor, Burma, the date has a different meaning. It is the 20th anniversary of the 8/8/88 uprising, which marked the start of a nationwide pro-democracy movement in Burma. Ngun Cung "Andrew" Lian was a student protest leader in Burma's Chin State in 1988. Targeted for arrest, he fled and walked for seven days through the jungle to escape to India, but continued to fight for democracy as part of the Chin National Front and other organizations. Now a research associate at the Center for Constitutional Democracy in Plural Societies at the Indiana University School of Law--Bloomington, Lian says the Burmese pro-democracy movement has grown in maturity, sophistication and international support. "When we were so brave and shouting for democracy (in 1988), actually we didn't know anything about democracy," he says. "Our distaste for the regime was so bitter that it made us very brave." David C. Williams, founder and director of the CCDPS and the John S. Hastings Professor of Law at Indiana University, says prospects for democratic change have improved in Burma, despite continued repression by the military regime (which calls the country Myanmar). China, which wants stability in the region, may be wavering in its support for the regime, he says. And a new constitution put forward by the regime at least theoretically allows for political parties and elections, potentially setting loose forces that the military can't control.
To speak to Lian or Williams, contact Steve Hinnefeld at University Communications, 812-856-3488 or slhinnef@indiana.edu, or James Boyd at the IU School of Law-Bloomington, 812-856-1497 or joboyd@indiana.edu.
