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How professional sports leagues that embrace social justice causes could influence politics

Given that and 57 percent of people in the watch a sports team regularly—compared to the 60 percent of people and —it's clear sports have an important and persistent influence on people's lives.

Sports can serve as a beacon to provide societal leadership or reflect changes in wider society in significant ways. A historical example would be .

But how can sports influence politics today?

Similar to supporting a political party, . This happens when people look to form attachments with other individuals who they believe are similar to them in some way to cultivate positive self-esteem.

Men's professional sports teams have historically engaged with certain political causes, namely and , while neglecting others, such as the plight of marginalized members of local communities. Sports engagement with the military .

Women's professional sport, meanwhile, has drawn positive attention through its engagement with marginalized community members. The Women's National Basketball League, for example, .

Men's sports protests

My preliminary research into these issues has shown that in men's professional sports, there has often been hostility towards the introduction of newer, more inclusive causes into sporting events. In the National Hockey League, for example, .

Former professional quarterback Colin Kaepernick's non-violent protest of police brutality in the United States resulted in . A crucial element of the backlash against Kaepernick was allegations by .

The power of this backlash was surprising given that in the U.S., . However, Republican sports fans tend to be more vocal about what causes should receive representation in sports.

Essentially, that means those who say or aren't suggesting they don't want any politics in sports. What they're really saying is that they don't want to see political views they oppose being represented in professional sports.

The patriotic causes that have routinely been championed by sports leagues and used for nation-building, such as the military, are viewed as apolitical and therefore appropriate in sports settings. Conversely, messages that are critical of a country or focus on historical inequalities and .

Can sports influence politics?

More recently, however, sports leagues and teams have begun to engage with social justice causes, such as LGBTQ+ rights , and .

These causes also include and .

As sports organizations adapt to changing social norms and embrace newer social causes, they hold tremendous potential to impact political attitudes. They can showcase the acceptance of marginalized groups in previously hostile spaces, and provide valuable representation.

Furthermore, sports fandom identity has .

, and why watching sports events is a valued leisure activity for many people of all ages. Finally, sports fandom can also over time through emotional regulation.

How sports could influence attitudes

The representative and psychological value of sports fandom suggests sport is an understudied area of political science, one I hope to build on in my future research.

For example, we do not yet fully understand the impact that sports teams holding Pride Nights have on attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community.

Nor do we know how soccer clubs in England, as local symbols of a migrant workforce, may impact immigrant attitudes.

Finally, we do not know why certain women's national soccer teams, , have been successful in protesting for equal pay while others, , have failed.

Sport could have a valuable role to play in unpacking these political questions about protest and identity—and represents an exciting emerging research area in political behavior.