Refining the relationship between ingroup identification and identity management strategies in the sport context: The moderating role of gender and the mediating role of negative mood Iouri Bernache-Assollant, 1 Raphaël Laurin, 2 Patrick Bouchet, 2 Guillaume Bodet, 3 and Marie-Françoise Lacassagne 2 Abstract The aim of this exploratory research was to refine the relationship between ingroup identification and three classical identity-management strategies: individual mobility, social competition and social creativity. More specifically, in the particular context of sport spectators’ reactions to their team loss, we tested the moderating role of gender in differentiating the use of CORFing (distancing) strategy and the mediating role of negative mood in differentiating the use of social competition and social creativity strategies. To this end, 173 French physical education students were asked to watch an edited video clip about a defeat of the French national rugby union team. As expected, and consistent with past research, results first showed that the amount of team identification is a reliable determinant of the participants’ choice of an identity management strategy. Highly identified spectators were more associated with engaging themselves in ingroup-protective behaviors (i.e., blasting and boosting) than spectators low in team identification who, in contrast, privileged distancing strategies (i.e., CORFing). Moreover, results revealed that participant’s gender moderates the link between ingroup identification and CORFing strategy, and that negative mood mediates the ingroup identification–blasting strategy relationship. Theoretical implications of these moderating and mediating effects are then discussed. 1 University of Franche-Comté 2 University of Bourgogne 3 University of Loughborough Corresponding author: Iouri Bernache-Assollant, PhD., Université de Franche- Comté, Laboratoire de Psychologie, Besançon (EA 3188) 55, faubourg des Ancêtres, F-9000 Belfort, France. [email: iouri.bernache-assollant@univ-fcomte.fr] Article Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 1–14 © The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermission.nav DOI: 10.1177/1368430210369680 gpir.sagepub.com G P I R Group Processes & Intergroup Relations Keywords gender, identity management strategy, ingroup identification, negative mood, social identity approach, sport spectators Paper received 25 June 2009; revised version accepted 4 March 2010. Group Processes Intergroup Relations OnlineFirst, published on July 30, 2010 as doi:10.1177/1368430210369680