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The purpose of this study was to examine conditions impacting fans’ preference for watching their most disliked team and their favourite team. Previous work found that National Football League fans clearly preferred watching the favourite team, but only preferred watching the disliked team when it was a threat to the favourite. Using the Psychological Commitment to Team (PCT) scale to segment National Basketball Association fans, the current study found both high and low PCT fans preferred watching the disliked team when it was a threat to the favourite team. However, only high PCT fans preferred watching the disliked team when it was likely to lose. Finally, high PCT fans were more likely to watch the favourite team regardless of the conditions, while low PCT fans were significantly less likely to watch the favourite team when it was likely to lose.
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Mahony et al. (1999) studied this question.
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