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Coaches' implicit associations between size and giftedness: implications for the relative age effect.
Philip Furley1, Daniel Memmert1
1a German Sport University , Cologne , Germany.
Journal of Sports Sciences
|June 23, 2015
Summary
Youth sports coaches show automatic bias, associating taller players with greater giftedness. This implicit bias in selection decisions may contribute to the relative age effect (RAE) in sports.
Area of Science:
- Sports Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- The relative age effect (RAE) is prevalent in youth sports, often attributed to biased talent identification by coaches.
- Coaches' selection decisions may be influenced by implicit associations, favoring players with physical maturation advantages.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate automatic associations between player body size and perceived giftedness in youth baseball and soccer coaches.
- To explore the role of grounded cognition in shaping coaches' implicit biases regarding player talent.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure automatic associations.
- Surveyed youth baseball (N=18) and soccer (N=34) coaches.
Main Results:
- Found significant automatic associations between body size and perceived player giftedness in both sports.
- Taller players were implicitly linked to positive attributes, while smaller players were linked to negative attributes.
- Effect sizes were medium to strong (baseball: MD=0.62; soccer: MD=0.51).
Conclusions:
- Coaches' abstract concept of 'sport giftedness' is grounded in physical height perception.
- These implicit biases can influence selection decisions, potentially explaining the relative age effect by favoring physically mature players.
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