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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1415170
This article is part of the Research Topic Psychological Factors in Physical Education and Sport - Volume IV View all 10 articles

Faster, More Accurate, More Confident: An Exploratory Experiment on Soccer Referees' Yellow Card Decision-Making

Provisionally accepted
Hongbiao Wang Hongbiao Wang 1Chenping Zhang Chenping Zhang 1Zhiguang Ji Zhiguang Ji 1Xiawen Li Xiawen Li 2Liyan Wang Liyan Wang 2*
  • 1 Department of Physical Education, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, China
  • 2 College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study investigates soccer referees' decision-making (DM) processes concerning the issuance of yellow cards in response to fouls. 60 male participants, categorized into expert (n=30) and novice (n=30) groups based on their refereeing experience and qualifications, participated in a 2×2×2 mixed-design experiment. The independent variables included Decision-Making Style (DMS: Analytical Decision-Making [ADM] vs. Intuitive Decision-Making [IDM]), Video Type (yellow card foul vs. non-yellow card foul), and Referee Level (expert vs. novice). The dependent variables included accuracy rate (ACC), discrimination index (D), self-confidence index (C), and overconfidence index (OC). The results revealed a significant main effect of DMS, wherein ADM showed higher accuracy than IDM.Expert referees demonstrated a superior ACC compared to novice referees. Additionally, the interaction between DMS and Referee Level proved significant, highlighting variability in the effectiveness of ADM and IDM between expert and novice referees. Furthermore, the OC suggested that although both expert and novice referees demonstrated overconfidence, the degree was significantly higher in experts, particularly during IDM. These findings underscored the complexity of referees' DM in high-pressure situations and the potential benefits of ADM strategies. This study contributed to understanding cognitive biases in sports officiating and provided insights for training programs aimed at improving referee performance. The study found that while Automated Decision Making (ADM) helps novice referees make accurate decisions, expert referees are more prone to overconfidence, especially when relying on intuition. Targeted training is needed to improve performance and mitigate overconfidence in high-pressure situations. This study contributed to understanding cognitive biases in sports officiating and provided insights for training programs aimed at improving referee performance.

    Keywords: decision-making, Soccer, Referee, Yellow card, Overconfidence, Analytical Decision-Making, intuitive decision-making

    Received: 10 Apr 2024; Accepted: 17 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Zhang, Ji, Li and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Liyan Wang, College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.