Psychology plays an extremely important role in the way people perceive the world around them. This includes everything from the party we choose to vote for to the reactions we have when looking at our favourite team’s Twitter page.
This may sound like a weird introductory paragraph, but this is exactly what Chelsea supporters are experiencing right now.
Times are rough at Stamford Bridge. In their last six games, they have won only once and lost four. Accordingly, the fans are having a hard time sticking by the squad. They are understandably frustrated, and this frustration is coming out in every aspect of the club and not just the squad or the gaffer.
The most recent employee of Chelsea FC who has come under fire is the person handling the team’s Twitter account.
Claims and accusations are being thrown about the person, and these may or may not be true.
Let’s dissect them.
The main issue that is being pointed out is that he or she is intentionally throwing a few players under the bus, whilst simultaneously protecting a few others.
This is not a very new phenomenon, as we have seen this previously for England NT’s Twitter page too. However, this is not about racism, but rather about playing favourites.
The admin is allegedly brainwashing the newer and younger Blues into believing that Mason Mount is the pillar of Chelsea’s success, while players like Kovacic, Pulisic, and Jorginho are the root of all problems.
The reasoning here could be understood from the concept of conditioning. By pairing the photos of Mason Mount with the tweets that talk about goals or wins, the admin is training the fans to feel happy and confident when seeing any random Mount photo.
On the other hand, by pairing photos of Jorginho and others with that of defeats and draws, they are training the minds of the fans to feel sad or disappointed when looking at any of their other unrelated photos too.
As a concept, conditioning is one that is one of the oldest and most well-known in the world of psychology. However, this may not be what Chelsea fans think it is. In fact, another psychological concept, one that is also very well-known, could possibly be coming into play here – confirmation bias.
The whole idea about the admin having favourites found footing after the Nottingham game which Chelsea drew. They brought to light how non-English players were used as photos for losses while English star boys were used for their wins. However, a quick look back at Chelsea’s account would point to some holes in the theory.
For example, here are two tweets from just last year which used Pulisic as the poster for their win.
Here is another from their most recent win which shows Kai Havertz as the poster, despite Mount being a goal-scorer in the game.
Here is another with the whole team, including Jorginho, in what was a great Champions League win.
So yes, it is entirely possible that the frustration of results is coming out on the probably-innocent social media admin, by simply choosing to see posts that agree with their idea and ignoring the ones that go against them, like the ones above.
However, their concerns are not completely baseless. It is true that it is extremely difficult to find a Mason Mount photo on a loss or a draw post. It is also very easy to find him on a victory post.
While the case of favouritism might not be as black and white as originally thought, it does exist in subtler ways. Whatever it might be in reality, it is not a good look for the diverse football club that has already been under fire for being known as a racist one. Hopefully, they can solve this issue without making it worse than it already is.
