Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) field studies.

TLDR

The study examined whether individuals publicly announce associations with successful others to bask in reflected glory (BIRG) across three field experiments. The authors propose that BIRG is an attempt to enhance one’s public image. All three studies found that people increased affiliation behaviors—such as wearing school apparel or using the pronoun “tee”—after their school’s football team won, even when they were not involved in the success, and that this effect was strongest when their public image was threatened.

Abstract

The tendency to in reflected (BIRG) by publicly announcing one's associations with successful others was investigated in three field experiments. All three studies showed this effect to occur even though the person striving to bask in the glory of a successful source was not involved in the cause of the source's success. Experiment 1 demonstrated the BIRG phenomenon by showing a greater tendency for university students to wear schoolidentifying apparel after their school's football team had been victorious than nonvictorious. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated this effect by showing that students used the pronoun tee more when describing a victory than a nonvktory of their school's football team. A model was developed asserting that the BIRG response represents an attempt to enhance one's public image. Experiments 2 and 3 indicated, in support of this assertion, that the tendency to proclaim a connection with a positive source was strongest when one's publk image was threatened.