Referee Bias In Making Calls

[Improviser]

Is it generally in favor of the home team, meaning more fouls called against the visitor, and more non-calls with the home team?

Against certain coaches?

If it exists, is it influenced by the other referees in the same game, or by a hostile crowd?

 

[aburks41]

3 rules to live by:

1) Duke gets every call

2) We always get screwed

3) Teddy Valentine sucks

 

[SubbaBub]

These guys all have a familiarity bias because of which teams (leagues) hire them for games. It can be positive or negative depending on your relationship with that particular official.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

If you are leaving a conference their officials will screw you out of multiple wins

 

[Palatine]

I think the bias in sports is mostly not conscious. If Wade Boggs took a pitch, it was probably a ball. After all he had a great idea of the strike zone. It certainly influenced umpires behind the plate. The refs are human, they give the benefit of the doubt to those who have earned the benefit on the doubt. Did the ball hit the ground or did Jerry Rice catch it? Arthur Marshall would not get as many favorable calls. If Jordan's shot came up short, someone must have hit his elbow. And on and on and on.

 

[Improviser]

I think the bias in sports is mostly not conscious. If Wade Boggs took a pitch, it was probably a ball. After all he had a great idea of the strike zone. It certainly influenced umpires behind the plate. The refs are human, they give the benefit of the doubt to those who have earned the benefit on the doubt. Did the ball hit the ground or did Jerry Rice catch it? Arthur Marshall would not get as many favorable calls. If Jordan's shot came up short, someone must have hit his elbow. And on and on and on.

This getting the benefit of the doubt, probably applies to guys like Jordan and Lebron as far as their not getting called for fouls.

 

[willie99]

Officiating in the AAC was bazaar

 

[glastonbury50]

If you are leaving a conference their officials will screw you out of multiple wins

You don't honestly believe this do you?

 

[BlueDogs]

I don’t see how any human can’t be subconsciously influenced by any number of factors. This includes correcting themselves with make up calls when they think they have made mistakes. Rough justice is the best you’ll ever get and expecting more is unrealistic.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

You don't honestly believe this do you?

 

[FatElvis]

I know I'm going to get bashed for this but what they hey. Duke gets the most calls from refs, the Boneyard complains the most about refs.

 

[auror]

Subjective referee calls are the #1 source of home court advantage.

Home teams are more aggressive. They take more 2 point shots at the rim. They get more foul calls.

In the NBA, the reduction of 2 pointers in favor of 3 pointers has lessened the home court advantage. Things like instant replay have also reduced this bias and thus advantage.

 

[XLCenterFan]

I’m a Pats fan. We (Brady) got so many calls.

 

[ToolzieFan]

Here’s a passage from an excellent book that I’d recommend to any sports fan looking to read about subjects like this.

“We looked at calls requiring more or less referee judgment to see whether the home advantage was the same. Loose ball and offensive fouls seem to be the most ambiguous and contentious. Ted Bernhardt, a longtime NBA official, now retired, helped us with our analysis. “Blocking fouls versus charging fouls are by far the hardest calls to make,” he says. It turns out that offensive and loose ball fouls go the home team’s way at twice the rate of other personal fouls. We can also look at fouls that are more valuable, such as those that cause a change of possession. These fouls are almost four times more likely to go the home team’s way than fouls that don’t cause a change of possession. What about turnovers and violations? Turnovers from shot clock violations, which aren’t particularly ambiguous or controversial, are no different for home or away teams. Turnovers from five-second violations on inbounds plays, which are also fairly unambiguous because everyone can count (though referees may count a little slower or faster than everyone else and there is no clock indicating when five seconds has elapsed), are also not very different for home and away teams (in fact, home teams receive slightly more five-second violations). If, however, we look at the most ambiguous turnover calls requiring the most judgment, such as palming and traveling, we see huge differences in home and away numbers. The chance of a visiting player getting called for traveling is 15 percent higher than it is for a home team player. The fact that ambiguous fouls and turnovers tend to go the home team’s way and unambiguous ones don’t is hard to reconcile with sloppy play on the part of visiting teams. But it’s exactly what you would expect from referee bias.”

— Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won by L. Jon Wertheim, Tobias Moskowitz

Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won

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[husky8273]

years ago, someone with whom I had expressed my belief that Jim Burr was always screwing UConn met him and shared this to which Jim replied "you tell him I call it the same for everyone".

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

I think the bias in sports is mostly not conscious. If Wade Boggs took a pitch, it was probably a ball. After all he had a great idea of the strike zone. It certainly influenced umpires behind the plate. The refs are human, they give the benefit of the doubt to those who have earned the benefit on the doubt. Did the ball hit the ground or did Jerry Rice catch it? Arthur Marshall would not get as many favorable calls. If Jordan's shot came up short, someone must have hit his elbow. And on and on and on.

Greg Maddox was adept at making the ump think the plate was 4 inches wider on each side

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Is it generally in favor of the home team, meaning more fouls called against the visitor, and more non-calls with the home team?

Against certain coaches?

If it exists, is it influenced by the other referees in the same game, or by a hostile crowd?

There is an article in Sports Illustrated dated Jan 17, 2011 "What's really behind home field advantage."
Same authors as Toolzie's

https://www.harrywalker.com/media/2001/scorecasting_si_1-17-111.pdf

 

[freescooter]

Is it generally in favor of the home team, meaning more fouls called against the visitor, and more non-calls with the home team?

Against certain coaches?

If it exists, is it influenced by the other referees in the same game, or by a hostile crowd?

I read a study a few years ago that also included Expectations in ref bias. Refs are influenced by the quality/reputation of the players. If you are covering James Bouknight and make an incredible block as he goes to the rim, it is likely they will call a foul because they expect him to make the play and you not to make it. Probably the best example was last year in an NBA game when LeBron took about 5 steps right in front of the ref and there was no whistle, because the ref just couldn’t process that he would do that, but more subtle cases occur regularly. Jordan got away with all manner of stuff because he was Jordan. It isn’t limited to basketball. A study in the NFL a few years ago found those refs throw flags on bad teams but not good ones for the same infractions because they don’t expect bad teams to make certain plays so the “see” penalties while they expect good teams to make them so they don’t see them.