Understanding the effects of different types of meaningful sports consumption on sports consumers’ emotions, motivations, and behavioral intentions

This study extends the existing sport management literature by examining how meaningful sports consumption could be conceptualized differently based on self-construal. In particular, we demonstrate that from a self-oriented perspective, highlighting the extraordinary skills of athletes makes sports consumption meaningful, whereas from an other-oriented perspective, highlighting the moral-excellence of athletes makes sports consumption meaningful. The results of two experiments indicated that sports consumers experienced different types of affective responses, self-transcendent emotions (admiration vs. elevation), motivations (self-improvement vs. compassionate love), and behavioral consequences (improving professional skills vs. helping others), depending on the type of sports consumption (skill-based meaningful vs. moral-based meaningful vs. hedonic), and the self-construal mindset (independent vs. interdependent).