Fan loyalty: investigating the emotional and cognitive responses of AFL fans and fanatics

The AFL is one of the largest sporting organisations in Australia and has in excess of 650,000 members. There has been speculation on the types of members that a sporting organisation may have, from casual members to fanatical members. This research identifies and then proposes these fanatical members are different to non-fanatical members. The research investigates this proposition using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) to test the brain activity of fanatical members and non-fanatical members, to see if the different fans process information differently. It is proposed that an understanding of information processing will allow for better design of segmentation and marketing communications to members.