Game management, context effects, and calibration: the case of yellow cards in soccer.
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.
Unkelbach
Christian
C
Social Psychology department in the Psychologisches Institut, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Memmert
Daniel
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000523:psychology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D012916:Soccer / Q000523:psychology*; D014796:Visual Perception