Racial Bias in Calling Fouls

[PeachtreeCat]

Wondering what lighthouse or others think about this study......
An academic study of the National Basketball Association, whose playoffs continue tonight, suggests that a racial bias found in other parts of American society has existed on the basketball court as well.

A coming paper by a University of Pennsylvania professor and a Cornell University graduate student says that, during the 13 seasons from 1991 through 2004, white referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players.

Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of business and public policy at the Wharton School, and Joseph Price, a Cornell graduate student in economics, found a corresponding bias in which black officials called fouls more frequently against white players, though that tendency was not as strong. They went on to claim that the different rates at which fouls are called “is large enough that the probability of a team winning is noticeably affected by the racial composition of the refereeing crew assigned to the game.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/sports/basketball/02refs.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

[lighthouse]

Before I give an opinion, I would like to know which games were used in this study.

[PeachtreeCat]

Before I give an opinion, I would like to know which games were used in this study.

For the study, they used the box scores of all the games from 1991 to 2004. Statistics were gathered on all white crews, 2 white and 1 black crews, 1 white and 2 black crews, and all black crews.
“Across all of these specifications,” they write, “we find that black players receive around 0.12-0.20 more fouls per 48 minutes played (an increase of 2 ½-4 ½ percent) when the number of white referees officiating a game increases from zero to three.”
However, this analysis is being criticized in today's papers because they didn't review game films, just box scores. So there is no way to tell who was calling the fouls when there were mixed crews.
Did you notice much of this in Ky. from your fellow officials in calling games?

[lighthouse]

That doesn't surprise me at all. Sounds like someone who doesn't know a hill of beans about officiating is just trying to start something. I worked on mixed crews all my career in High School and College, and all we did was go out and call the game. Each official had the others respect and confidence, and we never gave the makeup of the crew a thought.

[BowlingGreenUKGrad]

I don't know... statistics don't lie. I'm not shocked by the study. I think it's just basic human nature.

[Josh]

I didn't read the article or anything, but I just wanted to know if the stats took into account the ratio of black players to white players? I am pretty sure that there are far, far more black players than white, therefore, fouls would likely be called more often just on that alone.

[PeachtreeCat]

I didn't read the article or anything, but I just wanted to know if the stats took into account the ratio of black players to white players? I am pretty sure that there are far, far more black players than white, therefore, fouls would likely be called more often just on that alone.
Apparently they did, as follows:
"To investigate whether such bias has existed in sports, Mr. Wolfers and Mr. Price examined data from publicly available box scores. They accounted for factors like the players’ positions, playing time and All-Star status; each group’s time on the court (black players played 83 percent of minutes, while 68 percent of officials were white); calls at home games and on the road; and other relevant data.
...Mr. Wolfers and Mr. Price claim that these changes are enough to affect game outcomes. Their results suggested that for each additional black starter a team had, relative to its opponent, a team’s chance of winning would decline from a theoretical 50 percent to 49 percent and so on, a concept mirrored by the game evidence: the team with the greater share of playing time by black players during those 13 years won 48.6 percent of games — a difference of about two victories in an 82-game season. “Basically, it suggests that if you spray-painted one of your starters white, you’d win a few more games,” Mr. Wolfers said.