[1]While doing research, I started to think of getting another view on this topic. With being a kiniesiology (sport science) major, I thought that it couldn't be more fitting than to choose a sport psychologist to get their view and opinion on this topic. I knew that I needed to go further than picking one athlete and basing my entire project off of him. One of the best sources that I came across was this website that addressed issues such as: How do people explain the relationship between race, gender and performance in sports?, Do stereotypes impact the perception of athletic performance?, and Do stereotypes impact athletic performance?.
This article really opened my eyes on how racial stereotypes really go beyond just what we see in athletes from the outside world, which is what pushed me more to do research on this topic.
As I was doing my reading on this website, an interesting fact that I came across was that Black athletes were rated higher in natural athletic ability and work ethic than sports intelligence or emotionally. This pattern did depend on the race or gender of the perceive yet everyone, including Black perceivers, rated Black athletes this way. On the other hand, White athletes were rated higher in sports intelligence and work ethic than natural ability and emotion. This was a huge part to know about because it really helped to deepen my knowledge of the psychology behind why racial barriers can be an issue and the emotional and work ethic ties to it as well.
Another unique example that I found of this being put into place was from a broadcast of an NBA men's basketball game. Post-game ratings of the target showed that when participants thought that the target player was Black, he was rated high in athletic ability and to be a better basketball player, but he was also rated low in intelligent and hustle. However, when listeners of the broadcast thought the athlete was White, the player was rated as highly intelligent and as showing high effort, but as having low natural ability and possessing less skill in basketball. This is significant evidence of perceptions when we consider that all participants listened to the same performance. The data suggest that people let their beliefs about race guide their judgments of the target athlete's characteristics. When you truly think about it, it's crazy how racial stereotypes like this can happen just by listening to a sporting event and not even attending it. Additionally, an important point made by this research is that the negative impact of stereotypes is not limited to minority group members; anyone who belongs to a group for which negative stereotypes exist can suffer the effects of the negative stereotype in a performance situation. This is important to note in my research process as well because it shows that as I continue to come across examples of racial barriers in sports, it happens in many different situations, not just in certain places.
Another interesting part about this was that it addressed that issue of gender differences as well. A particular study about this was that female athletes were rated lower in natural ability than male athletes regardless of their race based on sports psychologists. Surprisingly, women rated female athletes the same way that men did. This suggests that people generally believe that women are less athletic than men. When reading this, it got my wheels spinning on wondering not only about racial barriers in sports, but also gender issues that arise as well. So, as I was researching this, I started to wonder how African American females versus males were treated in professional sports as well. From this, I determined that is where I wanted my research to head; gender equality in sports as well and how influential African Americans were back in the day and also present day.
When researching this source, I determined that it was credible because after each test done to find answers to these questions, there were names and dates of the researchers given to show where they got it from. Also, it came from the Department of Psychology of University of Arizona, which is a highly accredited university, so I knew that I can trust the research and results that were given for my project as well. From the author's tone, you could tell that they were there to inform you of this info and wanted you to truly know. Also, I knew that the author genuinely wanted to inform the audience because right at the beginning of the article, he put his email to contact if anyone had any questions about his article. This was useful for my topic as well because I was able to come up with the next segment that I want to focus on, gender equality in sports.
Website where research was found: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jeffs/sportlab.html
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