The absence of fans removes the home advantage associated with penalties called by National Hockey League referees

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on professional sports, notably, forcing the National Hockey League to hold its 2020 playoffs in empty arenas. This provided an unprecedented opportunity to study how crowds may influence penalties awarded by referees in an ecological context. Using data from playoff games played during the COVID-19 pandemic and the previous 5 years (n = 547), we estimate the number of penalties called by referees depending on whether or not spectators were present. The results show an interaction between a team’s status (home; away) and the presence or absence of crowds. Post-hoc analyses reveal that referees awarded significantly more penalties to the away team compared to the home team when there is a crowd present. However, when there are no spectators, the number of penalties awarded to the away and home teams are not significantly different. In order to generalize these results, we took advantage of the extension of the pandemic and the unusual game setting it provided to observe the behavior of referees during the 2020–2021 regular season. Again, using data from the National Hockey League (n = 1639), but also expanding our sample to include Canadian Hockey League games (n = 1709), we also find that the advantage given to the home team by referees when in front of a crowd fades in the absence of spectators. These findings provide new evidence suggesting that social pressure does have an impact on referees’ decision-making, thus contributing to explain the phenomenon of home advantage in professional ice hockey.

Eliminating supportive crowds reduces referee bias

“…However, Guérette et al. (2021) observed that the typical home advantage declined when ice hockey was played behind closed doors in both the Canadian Hockey League and the National Hockey League. The tendency for inconsistency across studies is likely to continue beyond football.…”

A Mere Fan Effect on Home-Court Advantage

“…In contrast, relatively empty arenas with fans kept socially distant from players constrain the potential impact of crowd noise on on-court communication by the away team. Prior research similarly indicates that the impact of fans on referee behavior is mediated by crowd noise and size (Dohmen & Sauermann, 2016;Garicano et al, 2005;Guèrette et al, 2021;Unkelbach & Memmert, 2010). Thus, the potential for referee bias to explain home-court advantage is muted in this context (see also Gong, 2022).…”

“…Prior studies explaining home-court advantage emphasize the home team’s familiarity with their arena (Loughead et al, 2003) and the physical impact of distant travel on away players (McHill & Chinoy, 2020; Pace & Carron, 1992). Further, in certain sports, crowd noise itself may interfere with on-the-field strategy (Nevill & Holder, 1999) or impact the referee’s ability to officiate the game fairly (Dohmen & Sauermann, 2016; Garicano et al, 2005; Guèrette et al, 2021; Unkelbach & Memmert, 2010). While prior studies demonstrate a relationship between fan attendance and home team performance (Moore & Brylinski, 1993; Smith & Groetzinger, 2010), statistical identification of the impact of fan attendance on home-court advantage is complicated by well-known concerns related to reverse causality.…”

Racial Bias in Fans and Officials: Evidence from the Italian Serie A

“…Unlike the explanations for racial biases, this literature has emphasized the influence the crowd can have over an official’s decisions (Dohmen and Sauermann, 2016). Evidence that home crowds bias referees towards home teams includes evidence from football (Goumas, 2014), basketball (Boudreaux et al, 2017) and hockey (Guerette et al, 2021). Though the mechanism by which crowds influence referee decision making continues to be debated, the most widely held view is that crowd noise can tip referees towards favourable decisions in high-leverage situations (Allen and Jones, 2014; Ribeiro et al, 2016).…”