Social Norms in Rivalries Increase Violence and Societal Harmdoing

We propose that perceptions of rivalry, a competitive relationship involving a notable shared history, increase violence and societal harmdoing (rivalry hypothesis) due to the specific social norms people follow against rivals (rivalry norms hypothesis). Using data on multiple years of real-world police arrests at high-stakes professional soccer games from Germany and football games in the U.S., Study 1 (N = 1,530) and Study 2 (N = 488) found that fans’ perceived rivalry toward opponent teams predicted more violence and stadium arrests, even controlling for crowd size, scarce resources, thwarted goals, fan’s propensity for violence, and police presence. Pre-registered experimental Studies 3 & 4 (Ns = 196 & 460 participants) found perceived rivalry linked to societal harmdoing support via differing injunctive and descriptive social norms. This research enriches perspectives focusing on more structural components of conflict and offers perceived rivalry as a novel subjective cause for violence and societal harmdoing.