Sequential effects in important sport-decisions: The case of penalties in soccer

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  • 1 January 2000
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      • Published in RePEc
Abstract
In a study on penalty decisions in soccer, one hundred-fifteen participants who were either referees or players made decisions as referees for each of 20 videotaped scenes from an actual match. In three scenes, potential fouls were committed by defenders in their penalty areas. The first two scenes involved the same team and the third scene occurred in the penalty area of the opposite team. Consistent with the assumption that judges' initial decisions have an impact on later decisions, we found a negative correlation between participants' successive penalty decisions concerning the same team. Deciding that no offence had been committed in the first scene increased the chance that a penalty would be awarded in the second scene, also relative to no-first-scene controls. Furthermore, we found a positive correlation between successive penalty decisions concerning first one and than the opposite team. These patterns were not found for less important contexts (free-kick decisions).
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