The war between darkness and light: The relationships between dark-triad, light-triad, empathy, schadenfreude, team identification and fair play, among fans

This study aims to determine the dark triad, light triad, schadenfreude, team identity, empathy and fair play levels of Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray and other sports clubs' fans and to examine the relationships between these characteristics. Using quantitative research methods, data were collected from 709 football fans through an online survey using convenience and snowball sampling methods. The scales, which were adapted into Turkish by translation-back translation method, were tested with EFA and CFA. AVE and CR values for convergent validity, HTMT for discriminant validity and Alpha values for internal consistency were calculated. Model 1 consists of the constructs of dark triad, schadenfreude and team identity, and Model 2 consists of the constructs of light triad, affective empathy, team identity and fair play. According to the results, a positive relationship was found between the dark triad and schadenfreude and between schadenfreude and team identity in Model 1. Although there was no direct relationship between the dark triad and team identity, the mediating effect of schadenfreude was found. In Model 2, there was a positive relationship between the light triad and affective empathy, a negative relationship between the light triad and team identity, a negative relationship between affective empathy and fair play, and a positive relationship between team identity and fair play. In addition, affective empathy was found to have a mediating effect between the bright trio and fair play.