Final answer:
The association principle influences how sports fans explain their team's wins and losses, leading to internal or external attributions. Fans tend to attribute their team's victories to internal factors like talent and hard work, while attributing losses to external factors like unfairness or unfavorable conditions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The association principle plays a role in the relationship between sports fans and their team by influencing the way fans explain their team's wins and losses. Research shows that fans tend to make internal, stable, and controllable attributions when their favorite team wins, such as attributing the victory to the team's talent, hard work, and strategies. On the other hand, fans are more likely to make external, unstable, and uncontrollable attributions when their team loses, such as blaming external factors like the other team's experience, unfair referees, or weather conditions. This principle helps explain how fans maintain their loyalty and support for their team.