Consuming esports and trash talking: How do social norms and moderating attributes influence behaviour?

Whilst understanding the social norms of trash talking is an emerging field of research, the extent to how esport consumers perceive its practice in esports is currently limited. Guided by Chung and Rimal (2016) framework to identify how social norms and moderating attributes influence behaviour, this study investigated consumers perceptions of trash talk in FPS esports. Focusing on Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch and Rainbow Six: Siege scenes, this study used data harvesting through the popular social media forum–Reddit and gathered 1,724 comments for analysis. Subjective and descriptive norms were influenced around the context of trash talk and the moments it occurred. Behavioural, individual, and contextual moderating attributes also influence consumers perspectives on why esport players do, or do not engage in trash talk. As an area of research still in its infancy, this paper aids in enhancing how communities reflect, discuss and debate relevant themes within esports.