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Abstract：
Non-democratic regimes have increasingly been hosting major sports events to boost their visibility and image abroad, which sparked debates about the potential for \"sportswashing\". Using the case of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar we examine how the framing of the tournament influenced opinions about Qatar abroad. Our pre-registered survey experiment with more than 14,000 respondents in eight European countries conducted before the tournament shows that framing it in light of human rights issues in Qatar leads to more negative attitudes towards the host of the World Cup. In contrast, frames emphasizing Qatar\'s organizational capacity improve respondents\' attitudes. The heterogeneity of effects across countries highlights the relevance of the national information environment for the effects of major sports events on public opinion. These findings suggest that critical media coverage could potentially mitigate sportswashing efforts while uncritical coverage can increase the legitimacy of autocracies.
摘要：
非民主政体越来越多地举办大型体育赛事,以提高在国外的知名度和形象,这引发了关于“运动运动”潜力的辩论。以2022年在卡塔尔举行的FIFA世界杯为例，我们研究了锦标赛的框架如何影响国外对卡塔尔的看法。我们在锦标赛前对八个欧洲国家的14,000多名受访者进行的预先注册调查实验表明，根据卡塔尔的人权问题制定这一框架会导致对世界杯主办国的负面态度。相比之下,强调卡塔尔组织能力的框架改善了受访者的态度。各国影响的异质性凸显了国家信息环境对重大体育赛事对公众舆论影响的相关性。这些发现表明，重要的媒体报道可能会减轻体育活动的努力，而非批评的报道可以提高独裁的合法性。
