Unveiling the emotional edge: how fans’ emotional attachment influences the relationships between fanship, fandom, subjective well-being, and attitudinal loyalty

Emotions are hallmarks of more internalised and meaningful sport fan identities. Building on this premise, we use the social identity approach to explore how fans’ emotional attachment affects the relationships between fanship (i.e. personal identification with a team), fandom (i.e. social identification with fellow fans), subjective well-being (SWB), and attitudinal loyalty. We used structural equation modelling to analyse data from fans (N = 571) of two Italian Serie A association football teams. Results highlighted a positive association between fandom and SWB. SWB positively mediated the relationship between fandom and attitudinal loyalty. Moreover, emotional attachment negatively moderated the relationships between fanship and SWB, and between fandom and attitudinal loyalty. These results indicated that high identifiers feeling strong emotional attachment to the team displayed lower SWB and attitudinal loyalty toward the team. Practitioners and organisations may benefit from implementing initiatives and programs addressing the side effects of fans’ emotions.