International football matches are among the highest manifestations of national pride and unity that a country can have in peaceful times. However, some anecdotal evidence suggests that when things go wrong (e.g. when the national team loses), the euphoria surrounding these events can easily turn into xenophobic outbursts. We propose a conceptual framework and an empirical analysis to explain whether sports nationalism can fuel xenophobic behavior and attacks against immigrants. Leveraging on new soccer data from Germany and quasi-experimental econometric techniques, we show the existence of a causal nexus between the national team’s performance in prominent international competitions and shifts in nationalist tendencies and xenophobic behaviors against immigrants. In the immediate days following a defeat of the German national team, there is a significant increase in the number of attacks against immigrants in the country. The opposite happens following a victory. Through a variety of robustness tests and different specifications, we show that the effect is specific to attacks against immigrants and not due to a general increase in violent behavior observed in other studies. Finally, we investigate potential underlying mechanisms by looking at the effect of football matches on reported mood and attitudes against immigrants.

中文翻译：

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体育民族主义和仇外心理：当欢呼变成暴力

国际足球比赛是一个国家在和平时期所能拥有的民族自豪感和团结的最高体现之一。然而，一些轶事证据表明，当事情出错时（例如，当国家队输球时），围绕这些事件的兴奋很容易转变为仇外情绪的爆发。我们提出了一个概念框架和实证分析来解释体育民族主义是否会助长仇外行为和针对移民的攻击。利用德国的新足球数据和准实验计量经济学技术，我们证明了国家队在重要国际比赛中的表现与民族主义倾向和针对移民的仇外行为的转变之间存在因果关系。德国国家队惨败后的几天内，该国针对移民的袭击数量显着增加。胜利后会发生相反的情况。通过各种稳健性测试和不同的规范，我们表明这种效应是针对移民的攻击所特有的，而不是由于其他研究中观察到的暴力行为普遍增加所致。最后，我们通过观察足球比赛对报道的针对移民的情绪和态度的影响来调查潜在的潜在机制。