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Over 50 million people in the United States are active fantasy sports players, with Fantasy Football (FF) being the most popular. The present study examined potential social predictors of FF participation, with an emphasis on social inclusion – which was assessed by measuring one’s need to belong, fear of rejection, loneliness and depression. We hypothesised that these social variables would positively correlate with other motivators for playing FF. Two dependent measures were created to assess FF participation – Involvement and Time Commitment. Involvement was positively correlated with one’s sensitivity to rejection. Time Commitment was not significantly predicted by any of the above. Participants who have a greater sensitivity to rejection may be playing FF as a means of staying connected to friends, while not devoting significant amounts of time to ensuring their FF team(s) perform(s) well. Both FF Involvement and Time Commitment positively correlated with Dwyer and Kim’s (2011) Motivational Scale for FF Participation (MSFFP). Specifically, Involvement positively correlated with the MSFFP Competition subscale, and Time Commitment positively correlated with the Social Interaction and Entertainment/Escape subscales. Although loneliness did not correlate with FF Involvement and Time Commitment, loneliness positively correlated with the Social Interaction subscale, and negatively correlated with the Entertainment/Escape subscale.
Fitzgerald et al. (Wed,) studied this question.