Does Moral Identity Matter in Situational Action Theory? Some Evidence of Iranian Fans’ Cyberbullying Perpetration

• Author: Seyyedeh Masoomeh (Shamila) Shadmanfaat,Kanika Samuels-Wortley,Saeed Kabiri,Owen Gallupe
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567720941584
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Does Moral Identity Matter in

Situational Action Theory? Some

Evidence of Iranian Fans’

Cyberbullying Perpetration

Saeed Kabiri

1

, Seyyedeh Masoomeh (Shamila) Shadmanfaat

2

,

Kanika Samuels-Wortley

3

, and Owen Gallupe

3

Abstract

Situational action theory (SAT) posits that morality plays a core role in determining whether situations

are viewed as suitable for crime. However, little attention has been paid to moral identity, the degree

to which a person considers morality to occupy a central position in their view of themselves. Using a

convenience sample of Iranian soccer fans (N¼374), we test both the direct and moderated role of

moral identity in explaining cyberbullying, an outcome that differs from most SAT research focusing on

violent/property crime. We find that fans with a weaker moral identity tend to engage in more

cyberbullying and that moral identity significantly interacts with a number of SAT-derived predictors

(moral emotions, self-control, perceptual deterrence, and situational morality) in expected ways.

Keywords

situational action theory, cyberbullying, morality, moral identity

The growth of social media has shifted the way sports clubs and athletes communicate with their

fans (Sanderson, 2013). Sport relationship marketing research has shown that both fans and sports

clubs use social media applications and online pages such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and blogs

(Mudrick et al., 2016; Sanderson, 2013; Vale & Fernandes, 2018) to foster like-minded communities

and to push favorable images of their preferred athletes (Delia, 2019). Vale and Fernandes (2018)

argue that social media has fundamentally altered interactions between sports fans and with their

teams/athletes. While these online interactions are often innocuous, they can also veer into aggressive

behaviors and cyberbullying (Shadmanfaat et al., 2020).

Some work has implicated social media in generating fan aggression and deviance (Alshehri,

2016), particularly since these online environments are easily accessible and afford anonymity

1

University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

2

University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

3

University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Owen Gallupe, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1.

Email: ogallupe@uwaterloo.ca

International CriminalJustice Review

2020, Vol. 30(4) 406-420

ª2020 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/1057567720941584

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