Referees' Decision Making about Transgressions: The Influence of Player Gender at the Highest National Level

Abstract

Prior research has found that referees are harsher toward sporting offenses in regional-level matches between women than in regional-level matches between men. We tested whether this bias also occurs at a higher, national level of competition, despite the greater pressures for objectivity and fairness at this level. Referees' decisions were examined in 15 national-level handball matches between women and 15 national-level handball matches between men after transgressions that varied in severity. The results suggest that referees made harsher decisions in female than in male matches. Although more research is needed, this study supported the hypothesis that referees may use the gender of players as a powerful judgmental heuristic for deciding how to respond to aggression.

Does Spontaneous Favorability to Power (vs. Universalism) Values Predict Spontaneous Prejudice and Discrimination?

“…As in past research (e.g., Souchon et al, ), our male participants were significantly more likely to intervene and discipline female players ( M = 44.88, SD = 7.08) than male players ( M = 42.9, SD = 8.47), across all cells of the 2 (video order) × 3 (competition level) × 2 (type of decision) mixed‐model design, F (1, 89) = 5.42, p = .02, = .06 (without significant reversals in any cell). The degree of gender bias was calculated for each participant by subtracting the intervention scores for the male players from the intervention scores for the female players and by subtracting the disciplinary scores for the male players from the disciplinary scores for the female players.…”

The Influence of Referees’ Expertise, Gender, Motivation, and Time Constraints on Decisional Bias Against Women

“…Stereotypes, which are a kind of judgmental heuristic, can be defined as the sum of beliefs, knowledge, and expectations that individuals develop toward the members of social categories (Hamilton & Sherman, 1994). Research has shown that referees' decisions may be influenced by stereotypes relating to competition level and by gender stereotypes (Souchon, Coulomb-Cabagno, Traclet, & Rascle, 2004;Souchon, Cabagno, Rascle et al, 2009;Souchon et al, 2010). For example, if referees hold a stereotype of women as less competent than men in masculine domains such as team contact sports (Deaux & Lafrance, 1998) and that women should not be aggressive (Burgess & Borgida, 1999;Rudman & Kilianski, 2000), then this stereotype may create expectations that female players are more likely to be neutralized or perturbed by the foul and lead referees to appraise the transgressing female player as being more aggressive.…”

“…For example, if referees hold a stereotype of women as less competent than men in masculine domains such as team contact sports (Deaux & Lafrance, 1998) and that women should not be aggressive (Burgess & Borgida, 1999;Rudman & Kilianski, 2000), then this stereotype may create expectations that female players are more likely to be neutralized or perturbed by the foul and lead referees to appraise the transgressing female player as being more aggressive. Consequently, female players tend to be more severely sanctioned than male players in team contact sports (Souchon et al, 2004;Souchon, Cabagno, Rascle, et al, 2009;Souchon et al, 2010) and pervasive gender bias in refereeing decisions potentially present a significant barrier to women's feeling free to pursue their sporting interests, including the freedom to play like men if they want to or to not conform to arbitrary stereotypes of femininity.…”

Introduction to the special issue: Officials in sports

“…Expertise (MacMahon & Plessner, 2008;Ollis, MacPherson, & Collins, 2006;Ste-Marie, 2003), previous experience (Catteeuw, Helsen, Gilis, & Wagemans, 2009;MacMahon, Helsen, Starkes, Weston, 2007;Pizzera & Raab, 2012), stress and coping strategies (Louvet, Gaudreau, Menaut, Genty, & Deneuve, 2009;Voight, 2009) and visual perception of referees (Helsen, Gilis, & Weston, 2006;Oudejans et al, 2000) were thus investigated and debated amongst the scientific community. This work in psychology allowed for the investigation of influencing internal and external factors including: stereotypes (Souchon, 2011;Souchon et al, 2009), reputation (Findlay & Ste-Marie, 2004;Jones, Paull, & Erskine, 2002), visual and motor experience (Pizzera & Laborde, 2011;Pizzera & Raab, 2012), audience (Goumas, 2012;Nevill, Balmer, & Williams, 1999;Unkelbach & Memmert, 2012) and context (Brand, Schmidt, & Schneeloch, 2006;Dosseville, Laborde, & Raab, 2011). Finally, referees' motivation (Gray & Wilson, 2008;Philippe, Vallerand, Andrianarisoa, & Brunel, 2009) and communication, in particular with the other actors of sport competitions (Cunningham, Simmons, Mascarenhas, & Redhead 2014;Dosseville, Laborde, & Bernier, 2014;Mellick, Fleming, & Davies, 2007;Simmons & Cunningham, 2013) were also recently the focus for researchers in this field.…”

“…Ces travaux en psychologie permettent ainsi d'examiner l'influence de facteurs internes et externes : les stéréotypes (Souchon, 2011 ;Souchon, et al, 2009), la réputation (Findlay & Ste-Marie, 2004 ;Jones, Paull, & Erskine, 2002), les expériences motrices et visuelles (Pizzera & Laborde, 2011 ;Pizzera & Raab, 2012), le public (Goumas, 2012 ;Nevill, Balmer, & Williams, 1999 ;Unkelbach & Memmert, 2012) ou le contexte (Brand, Schmidt, & Schneeloch, 2006 ;Dosseville, Laborde, & Raab, 2011). Enfin, les motivations des arbitres (Gray & Wilson, 2008 ;Philippe, Vallerand, Andrianarisoa, & Brunel, 2009) ainsi que la communication, notamment avec les autres acteurs des rencontres sportives (Cunningham, Simmons, Mascarenhas, & Redhead 2014 ;Dosseville, Laborde, & Bernier, 2014 ;Mellick, Fleming, & Davies, 2007 ;Simmons & Cunningham, 2013) ont egalementélargi le champ d'investigation des chercheurs ces dernières années.…”