The 2026 World Cup: the social psychology of fervor, consumer culture, and the crisis of belonging
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22201/ceide.16076079e.2026.27.3.14Keywords:
soccer, social psychology, collective identity, spectacle culture, contemporary rituals, cultural consumptionAbstract
fifa World Cup 2026, jointly hosted by Mexico, the United States, and Canada, represents far more than a global sporting event. It functions as a large-scale cultural dispositif through which contemporary societies reveal their emotional structures, social tensions, and symbolic needs. This article examines the World Cup as an intensified secular ritual, where identity, collective psychology, consumption, and spectacle intersect. From an interdisciplinary perspective —that integrates critical theory, social psychology, cultural anthropology, and history—, this article examines how soccer fervor operates simultaneously as a space of belonging and as a mechanism for emotional regulation in contexts marked by precarity, social fragmentation, and digital hyperconnectivity.
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