Seeing Stars: Matthew Effects and Status Bias in Major League Baseball Umpiring

Abstract

This paper tests the assumption that evaluators are biased to positively evaluate high status individuals, irrespective of quality. Using unique data from Major League Baseball umpires' evaluation of pitch quality, which allow us to observe the difference in a pitch's objective quality and in its perceived quality as judged by the umpire, we show that umpires are more likely to over-recognize quality by expanding the strike zone, and less likely to under-recognize quality by missing pitches in the strike zone for high status pitchers. Ambiguity and the pitcher's reputation as a "control pitcher" moderate the effect of status on umpire judgment. Further, we show that umpire errors resulting from status bias lead to actual performance differences for the pitcher and team.Keywords: Status, Bias, Performance Forthcoming in Management Science2 Social scientists have long understood status to be an indicator of hierarchical position and prestige that helps individuals and organizations procure resources and opportunities for advancement (e.g., Whyte 1943;Podolny 2001;Sauder, Lynn, and Podolny 2012). Status markers, like ranking systems in education (Espeland and Sauder 2007) or awards and prizes (Rossman et al. 2010), accentuate quality differences among actors and create greater socio-economic inequality. Past research has advanced our understanding of how status hierarchies emerge and persist (Berger, Rosenholtz, and Zelditch 1980;Webster and Hysom 1998;Ridgeway and Correll 2006), on the psychological rewards of status attainment (e.g., Willer 2009;Anderson et al. 2012), on the association of status with characteristics such as race and gender (Ridgeway 1991), or on status outcomes, such as the accumulation of power, price and wage differentials, and other economic and social benefits (Podolny 1993;Benjamin and Podolny 1999;Thye 2000;Correll et al. 2007;Stuart, Hoang, and Hybels 1999;Bothner, Kim, and Smith 2011;Pearce 2011;Waguespack and Sorenson, 2011).In economic sociology, the classic statement of self-reproducing advantages is Robert Merton's (1968) theory of the Matthew Effect. Underlying the Matthew Effect is an assumption that individuals are biased to positively evaluate high status individuals irrespective of quality, and that this bias, rather than actual quality differences, perpetuates inequality between high status and low status actors. Scholars in status characteristics theory have made the case that this bias results from individuals' expectations and prior beliefs about competence and quality (Anderson et al. 2001;Ridgeway and Correll 2006;Berger et al. 1977;Ridgeway and Berger 1986), and experimental and audit studies have identified status characteristics as a mechanism that underlies discriminatory evaluations of low status individuals (e.g., Correll et al. 2007).Despite the evidence emanating from the experimental research in status characteristics studies, scholars studying the Matthew Effect in real world settings have had a more difficult time demonstrating that status bias is a mech...

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“…For example, Stern, Dukerich, and Zajac () showed that an emerging firm's likelihood of forming an alliance with an incumbent increases when the research achievements of its founding scientist (i.e., publications and citations) are congruent with the prestige of the university from which he or she graduated. Similarly, Kim and King () found that the level of congruity between two quality signals: a pitcher's number of All‐Star appearances and his career average of walks per batters faced positively relate to the evaluation of his pitch quality by Major League Baseball umpires.…”

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“…1 Recent work has applied these insights to ex post evaluation. For example, Kim and King (2014) demonstrate that high status baseball players are more likely to benefit from judgment calls made by umpires, nicely illustrating how quality can be inferred even when not precisely observed. Waguespack and Sorenson (2011) find that, holding film content constant, rating boards are more likely to deem movies from high status studios appropriate for younger audiences.…”

“…For example, in a sporting event, a well-defined outcome might have taken place but the evaluator has difficulty properly observing it, as with judgment calls among sporting referees. This notion of subjective error underpins calls for the use of instant replay in sports (Kim and King 2014).…”