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The influence of player gender on referees' decision making was experimentally investigated. In Experiment 1, including 145 male handball referees, we investigated (a) the influence of referees' level of expertise on their decisional biases against women and (b) the referees' gender stereotypes. Results revealed that biases against women were powerful regardless of the referees' level of expertise and that male referees' stereotype toward female players tends to be negative. In Experiment 2, including 115 sport science students, we examined the influence of the participants' gender, motivation to control bias, and time constraints on gender bias. Results indicated that participants' gender had no impact on gender bias and that participants were able to reduce this bias in conditions in which they were motivated to control the bias.

The purpose of these studies was to examine gender's effect on transgressive behaviors and referees' decisions during handball games (Study 1) and the potential influence of gender stereotypes about players on referees' decisions as regards these transgressive behaviors (Study 2). In Study 1, 20 games (10 women's games and 10 men's games) were videotaped and observed. The findings indicated that men displayed transgressive behaviors more than women and that referees penalized women more than men. In Study 2,30 referees answered a set of questions after they watched an edited video showing similar situations of female and male players. The findings showed that the similar situations in the video were judged in a different way by the referees. Thus, female players were granted more penalties than were male players. Gender stereotypes could effectively influence decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]