Norms backfire, but social stigma shows promise against sports piracy
A new study from the University of Portsmouth examines how social influence messages affect sports piracy.
Men tend to consume nearly twice the amount of live sports content via piracy compared to women.
When anti-piracy campaigns highlight how common piracy is (i.e. “norms” messages), these sometimes backfire—particularly for men—because it can legitimize piracy by suggesting “everyone’s doing it.”
However, emphasizing social stigma and reputation harm (i.e. that piracy makes you look bad) is more effective in deterring piracy—especially in male-dominated spaces like sports fandom.
Thus, the researchers recommend that anti-piracy strategies avoid normalizing illicit behavior and instead frame piracy as embarrassing, low-status, or damaging to one’s social image.
