Ethnic identity over national identity: an alternative approach to measure the effect of the World Cup on social cohesion

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a mega sport event has the potential to bring the nation together by increasing the importance of national identity and decreasing the importance of ethnic identity on the outcome of social cohesion. Instead of replicating prior work that has performed mean score comparisons of national identity, ethnic identity, and social cohesion before and after a particular event, the authors compared the variance explained (pre vs. post event) to show the aggregate influence of the two identities on social cohesion. By focusing on this reporting method, the subsequent discussion rests entirely on the practical influence of the perceptual changes that resulted from event hosting. Data for this trend analysis were collected from South African residents, pre (N = 1749), and post (N = 2020) the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Results indicated that while the importance of national identity on social cohesion did not increase, the importance of ethnic identity did decrease strongly, indicating that these mega sports events might cause individuals to forget about their ethnic differences as a result of these events.