Question

Your friend whose been attending basketball games carried out a rating of the rowdiness of the fans in all the sections and discovered that that rowdiest fans sit in section GG. Your friend wants you—as a psychology student, and a statistically sophisticated one at that—to explain to her what it is about those rowdy fans that they sit in section GG or, conversely, what it is about sitting in section GG that makes them so rowdy. What do you think is the most likely explanation for what your friend has found? Feel free to use a slogan or two in your explanation.

Answer 1

Similarity-attraction effect

The possible explanation for the behaviour is that "birds of like feathers flock together". People with similar characteristics form groups. It may not be always that fans in GG section are rowdiest, but, when such people are in the section, similar type people may move to join them in the section.

Other additional effect would be that of group conformity. People with other characteristics, may act rowdiest, just because they sit along with a particular group. They would modify their behaviour for acceptance and conformity.