Impact of perceived threats, benefits, and athlete brand image on attitudes toward naturalized athletes in the context of China

China's implementation of athletic naturalization has sparked controversy, yet empirical studies on the factors influencing public attitudes toward naturalized athletes remain scarce. This study aims to address this gap by constructing a theoretical model based on social identity theory, examining the impact of various psychological variables on respondents' attitudes toward naturalized athletes in China's national teams. Data were collected from 704 online respondents. Descriptive and exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were conducted using SPSS 25.0. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the proposed hypotheses, utilizing SmartPLS 3.0. The findings indicate that perceived threats negatively impact attitudes ( = -0.134,