Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) field studies
Cialdini, Borden, Thorne, Walker, Freeman and Sloan, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34(3), 1976, 366-375. Three field studies of basking in reflected glory, the public announcing of links to successful others. The effect appeared even when the person was not responsible for the success. University students wore school-identifying clothing more after a football win than a loss, and used the word we more often to describe a win than a loss. The authors proposed that basking protects or improves public image, and two studies supported that people were keenest to claim a connection when their image was under threat.
Cialdini, Borden, Thorne, Walker, Freeman and Sloan, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34(3), 1976, 366-375. Three field studies of basking in reflected glory, the public announcing of links to successful others. The effect appeared even when the person was not responsible for the success. University students wore school-identifying clothing more after a football win than a loss, and used the word we more often to describe a win than a loss. The authors proposed that basking protects or improves public image, and two studies supported that people were keenest to claim a connection when their image was under threat.
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Cialdini, R. B., Borden, R. J., Thorne, A., Walker, M. R., Freeman, S., & Sloan, L. R. (1976). Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) field studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(3), 366-375. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.34.3.366 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.34.3.366