Fan aggression in football (soccer) is a societal problem that affects many countries worldwide. However, to date, most studies use an epidemiological or survey approach to explain football fan aggression. This study used a controlled laboratory study to advance a model of predictors for fan aggression. To do so, football fans (n = 74) saw a match summary in which their favorite team lost against their most important rival. Next, we measured levels of aggression with the hot sauce paradigm, in which fans were given the opportunity to administer a sample of hot sauce that a rival football supporter had to consume. To investigate if media exposure had the ability to reduce aggression, before the match fans saw a video in which fans of the rival team commented in a neutral, negative, or positive manner on their favorite team. Results showed that the media exposure did not affect aggression. However, participants displayed high levels of aggression and anger after having watched the match. Also, aggression was higher in fans with lower basal cortisol levels, which suggests that part of the aggression displayed was proactive and related to anti-social behavior. Furthermore, aggression was higher when the referee was blamed and aggression was lower when the performance of the participants’ favorite team was blamed for the match result. These results indicate that aggression increased when the match result was perceived as unfair. Interventions that aim to reduce football fan aggression should give special attention to the perceived fairness of the match result.

According to the socially embedded model of thriving at work, employees thrive (i.e., experience a sense of vitality and learning), when they can engage in agentic work behaviours. In this study, we first examine whether strengths use can be seen as an agentic work behaviour that contributes to thriving. Second, we investigate whether the degree to which colleagues recognize each other's strengths boosts the positive relationship between strengths use and thriving. Third, we propose that perceived organizational support for strengths use and opportunities for professional development are organizational factors that contribute to thriving because they enable employee strengths use, and that this indirect relationship is also reinforced by intercollegial strengths recognition. An analysis of 445 Dutch employee and 159 close co-worker reports show that strengths use and thriving are indeed positively connected. Our findings reveal that intercollegial strengths recognition is a positive moderator of the relationship between strengths use and vitality. We identify two organizational factors that contribute to thriving through employee strengths use and find that the nature of the indirect pathway to vitality also depends on colleague recognition. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

When employees develop their personal strengths at work, they thrive. Unfortunately, many people are unaware of what their strengths are. This encouraged the construction of strengths assessment tools such as the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths and the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0. However, these inventories may be unsatisfactory in describing all types of work-related strengths employees can identify with. Therefore, we test the comprehensiveness of these indices in the context of work. Based on our findings, we design an iterative procedure guided by the Critical Incident Technique to develop a novel index of occupational strengths. First, we inductively generate the index from 954 strengths reported by 231 Dutch employees and 87 of their colleagues and test its internal reliability (Study 1). Then, we translate the index and assess its applicability with 1056 strengths reported by 176 employees from English-speaking countries (Study 2). Finally, we examine the robustness and generalizability of both versions with an additional Dutch (N = 218) and English (N = 216) sample (Study 3). By building an index through the language of the employee, we generate a specialized tool for human resource development professionals and managers to help employees focus on and apply their best selves.

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