Referee Bias in Professional Football
Favoritism Toward Successful Teams in Potential Penalty Situations
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4662298 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martin K Erikstad (0000-0002-8954-5060, Nord University, corresponding author), Bjørn Tore Johansen (0000-0003-3621-7933, University of Agder) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Pages | 19-19 |
| Publication date | 2020-02-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2624-9367 • E-ISSN: 2624-9367 |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH) |
| DOI | 10.3389/fspor.2020.00019 |
| PMID | 33345013 |
| OpenAlex | W3007003024 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 27 |
Past studies have indicated that multiple factors may influence sport referees' decisions, such as pressure from spectators and athletes' reputation. Grounded in the social impact theory framework, this study examined whether Norwegian Premier League (NPL) referees are biased by a team's success when awarding penalties. Using video footage (similar to video assistant referees), an expert panel (EP) of four NPL referees evaluated all potential penalty situations (N = 43) involving either of two successful teams during an entire NPL season. Fifty-five potential penalty situations from matches without successful teams were also rated. Overall, the match referees identified 73.3% (22 of 30) of the EP-identified penalties during matches without successful teams. Successful teams were awarded 110% (11 of 10) of the EP-identified penalties, while their opponents were awarded 12.5% (1 of 8). Chi square statistic revealed that successful teams were more likely to receive an incorrect penalty compared with their opponents, and less likely to be denied a penalty they should have been awarded. These findings indicate that referees' decisions may be unintentionally biased by a team's success, extending our knowledge about how football referees may be influenced by social forces
Athletes · Basketball · Football · Football team · League · Norwegian · Political science · Reputation · Statistic · Statistics · Applied Psychology · Law · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports Analytics and Performance · Sports, Gender, and Society
Arbiter assignment
Reliability agreement in foul and penalty judgements between officials in the Swedish hockey league
A Preliminary Analysis of the Importance of Distance, Angle, and Insight When Soccer Referees Make Penalty Decisions
The Cultural Sources of Deception in Soccer
The effect of social pressure when judging favorites and underdogs
The Issue of Unconscious Bias in Referee Decisions in the National Rugby League
Understanding and Mitigating Fraud Risk in Professional Football
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |