Citation

Unkelbach C, Memmert D. J. Sport Exerc. Psychol. 2008; 30(1): 95-109.

Affiliation

Social Psychology department in the Psychologisches Institut, University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Human Kinetics Publishers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

18369245

Abstract

Referees in German first-league soccer games do not award as many yellow cards in the beginning of a game as should be statistically expected. One explanation for this effect is the concept of game management (Mascarenhas, Collins, & Mortimer, 2002). Alternatively, the consistency model (Haubensak, 1992) explains the effect as a necessity of the judgment situation: Referees need to calibrate a judgment scale, and, to preserve degrees of freedom in that scale, they need to avoid extreme category judgments in the beginning (i.e., yellow cards). Experiment 1 shows that referees who judge scenes in the context of a game award fewer yellow cards than referees who see the same scenes in random order. Experiment 2 shows the combined influence of game management (by explicitly providing information about the game situation) and calibration (early vs. late scenes in the time course of a game). Theoretical implications for expert refereeing and referee training are discussed.

Language: en