- What no one tells you about why are Arsenal getting so many cards this season
- 10 issues that show there is something seriously wrong with refereeing in the PL
By Tony Attwood
Have you ever thought about how referees make decisions? Probably not, because we are constantly assured by the media that they watch and decide if the laws of the game have been broken or not, if the goal was legit or not etc.
In fact the referee is making decisions all the time. Yes it might clearly be a foul, but is it a foul worthy of a free kick, should advantage be played, is the foul worthy of a yellow card, or even a red…?
Obviously we all make decisions all the time. Should I write up this article before making another coffee, or get the coffee first? Or perhaps I should take a walk to clear my head. There’s a phone call coming in on my landline. I pick up, but there is no immediate answer to my hello. There are clicks. It sounds like a trick sales call. Do I wait for the caller or just put the phone down? A decision.
Everything is a decision. Same for the referee, was that a foul, do I play advantage, did the player show enough respect when I waved a card, how much additional time do I add on, do I follow VAR’s view…
And each and every time we all of us, referee on the pitch, me sitting at home writing this, make decisions, starting with do I reflect on the various options and try and weigh up each one, or do I make an intuitive choice?
Logic suggests that weighing up the options and using our knowledge will give us the best solution as to what to do. Except a new report by from the American Psuychological Association shows that going with your gut feelings, “results in a bigger boost to our mood.”
In short, responding to choices intuitively, makes us feel better. Now the research didn’t work with Premier League referees, because PGMO won’t allow any research to be undertaken in relation to their referees, for fear that it will reveal just how mistaken they can be.
But instead 256 participants were “given information about intuitive and analytical styles of decision-making.” Then in the coming weeks they reported via an app on their decisions day by day, hour by hour. Those decisions were about everything from diet to making a purchase, seeing friends etc.
Each time they were asked either to make the decision at random, or analytically or intuitively. Also those in the research had to rate how they felt. both before and after making the decision. lt.
The survey showed that simply making a decision made the individual feel better than before. But the really big improvement in how they felt came from making intuitive decisions. Not decisions based randomly or analytically but based on what the individual felt. Put another way, through the use of “gut feeling”.
The reason for this is that for almost all of us, making a decision resolves uncertainty and thus stops any internal conflict as in “was it a penalty or not?” Once the decision is made, that’s it, it’s done. And in fact psychologists have long known that fast mental processing feels good while worrying over an issue feels bad. So quick decision-making makes refs feel better – and that has nothing to do with being right or wrong.
Which in fact puts the referee on a collision course with VAR, which slows everything down.
In fact research shows that quick intuitive, decision-making of the type referees use in football matches “is more prone to inaccuracies and biases, potentially impairing our ability to make fair, reasonable decisions.”
Making a quick decision makes the referee feel better. He might not realise this, but his mental functions do, so he makes quick decisions in order to feel better, not in order to get more decisions right.
And since there is no one there to overrule him, he will go on making quick decisions because it makes him feel better. It has nothing to do with accuracy, only about how the referee feels.
The original research comes from Remmers, C., Topolinski, S., Knaevelsrud, C., Zander-Schellenberg, T., Unger, S., Anoschin, A., & Zimmermann, J. (2024). Go with your gut! The beneficial mood effects of intuitive decisions. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001385
