Our Team Cares: Using a Sport Social Identity to Promote Collective Action Toward Disadvantaged Groups

We conducted a field intervention aimed at fostering collective action toward disadvantaged groups among football players from the grassroots of a professional football team. The 3-step intervention aimed at increasing the salience and relevance of the football sport identity and its associated positive values (e.g., respect, social inclusion). In the intervention, we highlighted the importance of keeping consistent behaviour within and beyond the football field, acting as role models, and engaging in collective action in favour of disadvantaged groups. Results of qualitative analyses revealed that the intervention contributed to making participants aware of the importance of their social identity and its values, of behaving consistently with this identity beyond the sport domain, and of being willing to act as role models to the benefit of disadvantaged groups. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of activating a positive and valued social identity to foster solidarity-based collective action.