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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

Pathways to the emergence of online group polarization in sports events

  • Jianshan Bai1
  • Deping Hu1
  • Tao Wang1
  1. 1School of Economics and Management, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
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Abstract

Online group polarization surrounding sports events has emerged as a significant challenge for digital public opinion governance. Drawing on social combustion theory, the study identifies seven explanatory conditions: political triggers, news narrative frames, opinion leaders, capital intervention, first media, event attributes, and stakeholder participation. Using a sample of 24 recent high-profile sporting events, the study employs crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (cs QCA) to investigate the configurational pathways leading to online group polarization and to generate insights for its mitigation. The findings identify five distinct pathways through which online group polarization in sports events emerges, revealing two underlying generative mechanisms. The first is the “sensitive issues–emotional narrative” mechanism, while the second is the “non-sensitive issues–capital involvement” mechanism.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{bai2026pathways,
  title = {{Pathways to the emergence of online group polarization in sports events}},
  author = {Jianshan Bai and Deping Hu and Tao Wang},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0361299},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361299},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Pathways to the emergence of online group polarization in sports events
AU  - Jianshan Bai
AU  - Deping Hu
AU  - Tao Wang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/27
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0361299
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361299
AB  - Online group polarization surrounding sports events has emerged as a significant challenge for digital public opinion governance. Drawing on social combustion theory, the study identifies seven explanatory conditions: political triggers, news narrative frames, opinion leaders, capital intervention, first media, event attributes, and stakeholder participation. Using a sample of 24 recent high-profile sporting events, the study employs crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (cs QCA) to investigate the configurational pathways leading to online group polarization and to generate insights for its mitigation. The findings identify five distinct pathways through which online group polarization in sports events emerges, revealing two underlying generative mechanisms. The first is the “sensitive issues–emotional narrative” mechanism, while the second is the “non-sensitive issues–capital involvement” mechanism.
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -