I watch some hockey, generally my local team and, more during the playoffs or if there are no other sports on. But I will admit that I was kind of cheering for the Canucks. They hadn’t won and I’m always in favor of anyone beating Boston at anything but…wow…was I surprised by the riots. Perhaps—despite my intention to always exhibit cultural relativity and see each culture as a member of that culture would see it and not as a representative of my own—I held a few stereotypes of Canadians as a whole (even with the understanding that, like us, they are a large and diverse country). As Americans, we often see them as nice, quiet people…and certainly non-violent. But, they can riot with the best of them. And I was extremely surprised to hear this wasn’t the first time this had happened.

Sports riots are really interesting examples of collective behavior. I wish I could have seen it unfold. Does it begin with one individual who accidentally sets fire to something? Does it start as aggressive chanting while watching the game? The behavior of a crowd usually begins with an emotion and there is little that is more emotional than a crowd of people forced to react to “their team” for hours with each other. Seeing others participating in the same behavior can also make it seem less deviant and, one often assumes, more anonymous. I’m sure it was surprising to everyone when participating individuals started to be identified online…