The causal impacts of empty stadiums on women’s sports activities: Evidence from European football leagues

This paper examines the effect of spectators on women’s football games. COVID-19 and related restrictions provide a unique opportunity with an adequate sample size to test the effect of lockdown on sports activities. Studies have recently exploited this opportunity for men’s football to better understand the potential causes of home advantage and, more specifically, assess the psychological consequences when matches are played without supporters. Despite the increased scientific interest, there was only one paper that focused on women’s football. Therefore, we aim to contribute to this research field by considering matches from four major European women’s football leagues. The findings suggest that for three of these leagues, lockdown has a statistically significant effect on the sanctioned yellow cards by either reducing the number of yellow cards sanctioned to the away teams or increasing the number of yellow cards sanctioned to the home teams. Nonetheless, lockdown does not affect any final match outcomes; therefore, it does not significantly affect the magnitude of home advantage for women’s games.     

Home advantage in Turkish professional soccer

Home advantage is known to play an important role in the outcome of professional soccer games and to vary considerably worldwide. In the Turkish Super League over the last 12 years, 61.5% of the total points gained have been won by the home team, a figure similar to the worldwide average and to the Premier League in England. It is lower (57.7%) for games played between teams from Istanbul and especially high for games involving teams from cities in the more remote and ethnically distinct parts of Turkey (Van and Diyarbakir). Match performance data show that although home teams in Turkey take 26% more shots at goal than away teams, the success rates for shots do not differ. For fouls and disciplinary cards, home and away teams do not differ significantly in Turkey, a finding that differs from games in England, perhaps due to less referee bias.     

The introduction of the Video Assistant Referee supports the fairness of the game – An analysis of the home advantage in the German Bundesliga

The introduction of the video assistant referee (VAR) was a landmark in soccer history, yet it is not empirically examined whether the technology contributes to the most supreme value of the game: fair play. Because referees are said to be one driving cause of the home advantage (HA), the aim of this study was to examine whether the HA changed in the German Bundesliga since the implementation of the VAR in the season 2017/18. We examined a total of 2448 games during the four seasons before and after the implementation of the VAR with regards to the game outcomes (i.e., goals and points) as well as indicators of referee bias (i.e., fouls, yellow cards, 2nd yellow cards, red cards, and penalty kicks) for both the home and the away teams. Findings indicate that the VAR influences game outcomes to a fairer degree. Specifically, (i) we found statistical evidence for the HA before, but not after the implementation of the VAR. However, (ii) these results need to be interpreted with caution because direct assessments of the change induced by the introduction of the VAR are not statistically significant. Finally, (iii) with the implementation of the VAR, fewer fouls were committed by both the home and the away team.     

Game location and officiating bias in English Club Cricket.

One potential contributing factor to the commonly observed home advantage in competitive sport is that officials may be biased in favour of the home team as a result of pressure from spectators. The present study examined officiating behaviour and home advantage, defined as home teams winning over 50% of decided games in English Club Cricket, a sport virtually devoid of spectator influence. Records of game outcomes, as well as dismissals requiring a decision by the umpire, were analysed. The relative frequency of umpiring decisions did not favour either home or away teams. However, a home advantage was found, with the home teams winning 57.1% of decided games (n = 1.449). Considered together, the results suggest that in sports with little or no spectator influence teams may win more often at home for reasons other than biased umpiring decisions, such as familiarity with their home ground or a visiting team's fatigue following travel.     

Home advantage in the Six Nations Rugby Union tournament

This study examined whether home advantage occurred in the Six Nations Rugby Union tournament. Data were gathered using the final championship standings from the tournament's inception in 2000 to the recently completed 2007 season. Home advantage for each championship season was defined as the number of points won by teams playing at home, expressed as a percentage of all points gained either at home or away. An analysis of home advantage for each of eight seasons of competition ranged from 53% (2005) to 70% (2006). There was an overall statistically significant home advantage of 61% for 120 matches played in the Six Nations tournament between 2000 and 2007. Also analysed were the percentage of points won at home by each country. Again, evidence supported home advantage amongst all competing nations regardless of the team's quality.     

Assessing whether black uniforms affect the decisions of Turkish soccer referees: is finding of Frank and Gilovich's study valid for Turkish culture?

Frank and Gilovich (1988) found that teams with black uniforms were penalized by referees more than other teams that did not wear black uniforms in the U.S. National Football League (NFL), and the U.S. National Hockey League (NHL). This finding was examined for the referees in the Turkish Premier Soccer League (TPSL) for the soccer teams wearing or not wearing black uniforms during actual games. 30 male referees' (ages 22-45 years, M = 34.8) decisions were analyzed in a total of 2142 Turkish premier soccer league games played in 7 seasons. Using the number of red and yellow cards and penalty kicks teams drew as a penalty decision criteria, no significant differences were found between Turkish soccer teams wearing black uniforms or those not and the number of penalty kicks. This result, which was different from that of Frank and Gilovich's work, was discussed in relation to the social psychological point of view of different cultures and societies.     

A comparison of human aggression committed by groups and individuals: An interindividual-intergroup discontinuity

Experimental research comparing aggressive behavior committed by groups and individuals is important but sparse. This experiment compared aggressive behavior (i.e., amount of hot sauce allocated for others to consume) in four types of interactions: intergroup, interindividual, group-to-individual, and individual-to-group. The results revealed that intergroup interactions were significantly more aggressive than interindividual interactions. In addition, groups allocated and received significantly more hot sauce than individuals. These effects were not explained by diffusion of responsibility or trait aggressiveness. The experiment reveals two noteworthy conclusions: (1) the interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect extends to aggressive behavior and (2) interactions in which a group is either the source or target of aggression are situational influences that can increase it.     

Supporters Are Not Necessary for the Home Advantage: Evidence From Same‐Stadium Derbies and Games Without an Audience

The home advantage is the phenomenon in sports whereby the home team wins more often than the visiting team. The current data show that home crowd support is not a necessary precondition for the home advantage. In soccer games where no audience was present, the home team still had a home advantage. Furthermore, in some same‐stadium derbies (games played between 2 teams that share a stadium; e.g., AC Milan vs. Internazionale in soccer), the home team always has more crowd support, but in these games no home advantage existed. Together, these findings suggest that crowd support is not a necessary condition for a home advantage to occur. The phenomenon might thus be much broader than assumed so far.     

Decision-making of English Netball Superleague umpires: Contextual and dispositional influences

ObjectivesThe decisions made by officials have a direct bearing on the outcomes of competitive sport contests. In an exploratory study, we examine the interrelationships between the decisions made by elite netball umpires, the potential contextual and environmental influences (e.g., crowd size), and the umpires' dispositional tendencies – specifically, their propensity to deliberate and ruminate on their decisions.Design/MethodFilmed footage from 60 England Netball Superleague matches was coded using performance analysis software. We measured the number of decisions made overall, and for home and away teams; league position; competition round; match quarter; and crowd size. Additionally, 10 umpires who officiated in the matches completed the Decision-Specific Reinvestment Scale (DSRS).ResultsRegression analyses predicted that as home teams' league position improved the number of decisions against away teams increased. A model comprising competition round and average league position of both teams predicted the number of decisions made in matches, but neither variable emerged as a significant predictor. The umpire analyses revealed that greater crowd size was associated with an increase in decisions against away teams. The Decision Rumination factor was strongly negatively related to the number of decisions in Quarters 1 and 3, this relationship was driven by fewer decisions against home teams by umpires who exhibited higher Rumination subscale scores.ConclusionsThese findings strengthen our understanding of contextual, environmental, and dispositional influences on umpires' decision-making behaviour. The tendency to ruminate upon decisions may explain the changes in decision behaviour in relation to the home team advantage effect.     

Gonadal hormones and intrasexual aggressive behavior in female bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus)

The effects of gonadal hormones on aggressive behavior in the female bank vole was investigated in 10 min home cage tests. Ovariectomized (ovx) or intact females injected with oil, with progesterone (P), with a mixture of progesterone and estrogen (P+E), or with testosterone (T) alone were confronted in a resident-intruder test with unfamiliar, nonoperated females as intruders. Intact females showed aggressive behavior more frequently than ovx females. Ovx females injected with P, with P+E, or with T made significantly more attacks, and these attacks lasted longer than those observed for oil-treated voles. The results indicate that P, the typical female hormone, is responsible for aggressive behavior in female bank voles; however, only T increased the duration of interfemale aggression. Aggr. Behav. 24:63–70, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Preventing conduct problems, promoting social competence: a parent and teacher training partnership in head start

Studied the effectiveness of parent and teacher training as a selective prevention program for 272 Head Start mothers and their 4-year-old children and 61 Head Start teachers. Fourteen Head Start centers (34 classrooms) were randomly assigned to (a) an experimental condition in which parents, teachers, and family service workers participated in the prevention program (Incredible Years) or (b) a control condition consisting of the regular Head Start program. Assessments included teacher and parent reports of child behavior and independent observations at home and at school. Construct scores combining observational and report data were calculated for negative and positive parenting style, parent-teacher bonding, child conduct problems at home and at school, and teacher classroom management style. Following the 12-session weekly program, experimental mothers had significantly lower negative parenting and significantly higher positive parenting scores than control mothers. Parent-teacher bonding was significantly higher for experimental than for control mothers. Experimental children showed significantly fewer conduct problems at school than control children. Children of mothers who attended 6 or more intervention sessions showed significantly fewer conduct problems at home than control children. Children who were the "highest risk" at baseline (high rates of noncompliant and aggressive behavior) showed more clinically significant reductions in these behaviors than high-risk control children. After training, experimental teachers showed significantly better classroom management skills than control teachers. One year later the experimental effects were maintained for parents who attended more than 6 groups. The clinically significant reductions in behavior problems for the highest risk experimental children were also maintained. Implications of this prevention program as a strategy for reducing risk factors leading to delinquency by promoting social competence, school readiness, and reducing conduct problems are discussed.     

The effect of cue Relevance,Ambiguity, and self-reported hostility on tat responses

The interaction of cue relevance and ambiguity was studied. Ss high or low in self-reported hostility were administered 8 T A T cards, half of which were high in hostility cue relevance, half low. Half of each subset, in turn, was high in ambiguity, half low. Highly relevant cards tended to elicit more aggressive content than low relevant cards, and stories to ambiguous cards tended to contain more aggressive themes than unambiguous ones, independent of hostility relevance. Hostile Ss tended to be best discriminated from non-hostile Ss on highly relevant cards, where they responded with more aggressive themes. Results were contrasted with previous findings and it was concluded that consistent with findings where hostility is defined by observation or arousal, highly relevant cues are most sensitive to hostility level. While greater expression of negative content, increments in ambiguity did not add to the sensitivity of the stimuli.     

Does the Gun Pull the Trigger? Automatic Priming Effects of Weapon Pictures and Weapon Names

More than 30 years ago, Berkowitz and LePage (1967) published the first study demonstrating that the mere presence of a weapon increases aggressive behavior. These results have been replicated in several contexts by several research teams. The standard explanation of this weapons effect on aggressive behavior involves priming; identification of a weapon is believed to automatically increase the accessibility of aggression-related thoughts. Two experiments using a word pronunciation task tested this hypothesis. Both experiments consisted of multiple trials in which a prime stimulus (weapon or nonweapon) was followed by a target word (aggressive or nonaggressive) that was to be read as quickly as possible. The prime stimuli were words in Experiment 1 and pictures in Experiment 2. Both experiments showed that the mere identification of a weapon primes aggression-related thoughts. A process model linking weapons as primes to aggressive behavior is discussed briefly.     

The effect of COVID-19 on home advantage in high- and low-stake situations: Evidence from the European national football competitions

The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly altered the way sporting events are observed. With the absence or limited presence of spectators in stadiums, the traditional advantage enjoyed by home teams has diminished considerably. This underscores the notion that the support of home fans can often be considered a key factor of the home advantage (HA) phenomenon, wherein teams perform better in front of their own supporters. However, the impact of reduced attendance on games with higher stakes, as opposed to low-stakes friendly matches, remains uncertain. In this study, we investigate the recently concluded European football championship (EURO 20), wherein several teams had the advantage of playing at home in high-stakes games with only one-third of the stadium capacity filled. Firstly, we demonstrate that the Covid-19 restrictions, leading to reduced fan attendance, resulted in a nearly 50% decrease in HA compared to the HA exhibited by the same teams during the qualification stage preceding EURO 20, even after accounting for team strength. Secondly, we show that while low-stakes friendly matches generally exhibit a smaller overall HA compared to high-stakes games, the absence of fans led to a similar reduction in HA during the low-stakes matches. Utilizing the recently developed Home Advantage Mediated (HAM) model (Bilalić, Gula, & Vaci, 2021, Scientific Reports, 21558), we were able to attribute the reduction in both high- and low-stakes games to poorer team performance, with no significant contribution from referee bias.     

Improving postswitch performance in the dimensional change card-sorting task: the importance of the switch and of pretraining by redescribing the test cards

The dimensional change card-sorting task (DCCS) is used to assess the executive abilities of young children. Typically, 3-year-olds have difficulty in performing this task. However, the exact nature of this difficulty is still being debated. In the standard DCCS, children need to sort, for example, test cards with a blue flower or a red car into two boxes marked with the target cards. The 3-year-olds commonly have pronounced difficulty in switching from one sorting criterion (e.g., color) to another (e.g., shape). Here two experiments with 3-year-olds showed that making the transition between the sorting criteria more distinct improved performance significantly. This was achieved by taking away the target cards for a brief time period, asking a question irrelevant to the task, and pretraining the children by redescribing the test cards.     

Effects of game location, period, and quality of opposition in elite handball performances

The aims of the present study were to identify (i) home advantage in elite handball according to the quality of opponent, (ii) the game periods where the teams score more goals, and (iii) the game statistics associated with the teams' success according to the game's location. The sample comprised 480 regular season games (2007-2009) from the Spanish Professional Handball League. The goals scored and shot effectiveness (6 m, 7 m, 9 m and fast breaks) were analyzed for each 5-min. game period in games between players of balanced and unbalanced quality. The home advantage was 64%, with higher values (71%) in balanced and lower values (55%) in unbalanced games. The 5-min. game periods in which teams scored more goals were the last 5-min. period of each half, especially in the second half. The effectiveness was only different in shots closer to the goal (6 m), which supports the territoriality theory of home advantage.     

The biological function of Pavlovian conditioning: Learned inhibition of aggressive behavior in territorial fish

Following Pavlovian discrimination training, stimuli predicting the appearance of a territory intruder (an excitatory conditional stimulus, CS+) or the absence of that event (an inhibitory conditional stimulus, CS−) were presented to pairs of territorial male fish immediately before their first aggressive interaction. Pairmates that both received excitatory stimuli prior to the confrontation were significantly more aggressive than a control group which received the same training but which received neither a CS+ nor a CS− in the test. Pairmates in which both received a CS− were significantly less aggressive than the control group. In these three groups, no differences in aggression were observed between the individual members of a single pair. Two additional groups were composed of pairs whose members received different stimuli prior to the test. Although no differences were found between pairmates in the group in which one member received a pretest CS− while the other member received no stimulus presentation, large differences in aggressive behavior were obtained when one fish received a CS+ and its pairmate received a CS−. We discuss the behavioral ecology of terriorial behavior in fish and attempt to show the potential importance of these results in this naturalistic context. In addition, we discuss the implications of an ecological approach for causal analyses of inhibitory learning.     

Reappraising the situation and its impact on aggressive behavior

Much work has focused on how reappraisal is related to emotions, but not behaviors. Two experiments advanced aggression theory by (a) testing how cognitive and attributional forms of reappraisal are related to aggressive affect and behavior, (b) testing variables that theoretically mediate the relation between attributional reappraisal and aggressive behavior, (c) testing the moderating influences of cognitive and attributional reappraisal on aggressive behavior, and (d) developing and testing an intervention aimed at reducing vengeance through reappraisal training. Study 1 used an essay writing task in a 3 (feedback: provocation, no feedback, praise) × 2 (mitigating information: present, absent) experimental design. Provoked participants who did not receive mitigating information were significantly more aggressive than provoked participants who received mitigating information. State vengeance was a significant mediator. Study 2 examined an experimental intervention on vengeance over a 16-week semester. Intervention participants who had the largest increase in reappraisal displayed the greatest decrease in vengeance. Overall, these findings suggest that reappraisal reduces vengeance and aggressive behavior.     

攻击性初中生的类别转变：潜在转变分析

研究采用潜在转变分析探讨了攻击性初中生的类别转变。276名初中参加了为期一年的短期纵向追踪研究,在一年中分两次报告了自己的攻击行为。用潜在转变模型分析了初二到初三时青少年的攻击类别转变,结果表明初中生有三种攻击模式。研究以潜在转变模型进一步探究了这三种攻击模式的变化,结果发现两种模式具有很强的稳定性,不同模式之间也有一定程度的转变。最后,研究探讨了攻击类别转变的影响因素,结果表明性别与友谊质量可以起到显著作用。针对实际意义,文章最后进行了讨论和总结。     

Social dominance and individual aggressiveness

Male rats exhibiting high, moderate, or low levels of offensive aggressive behavior in interactions with intruders in their home cage were grouped in mixed-sex colonies with 1 male of each aggression-level group in each colony. Agonistic interactions measured 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 22 days after colony formation indicated that highly aggressive males on pretests continued to be more aggressive, becoming the dominant colony male in five of seven colonies and attacking intruders more often than less aggressive males. In the two remaining colonies the moderately aggressive male became dominant. This relationship, which was consistent over a number of indices, including offensive and defensive behaviors, and wound counts and wound sites, was seen even when a substantial weight differential favored the less aggressive animal. Dominance relationships were rapidly established and within-group fighting declined significantly over the 21-day test period. Pretest offensive levels also influenced the behavior of subordinates, with high or moderately aggressive subordinates showing more defense in interactions with dominants and receiving more wounds than did low-aggression subordinates. Dominant males also showed more defense in interacting with those subordinates which had been more aggressive during pretests. This pattern of results suggests that aggression level of the subordinate as well as the dominant may be an important factor determining the intensity of agonistic interactions in male rats.