- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
I found an interesting analysis published in Perspectives in Politics, a journal of the American Political Science Association, Cambridge University Press (2007, volume 5, pages 17-29.)
The title is “The Cold War on Ice: Constructivism and the Politics of Olympic Figure Skating Judging.”
Here is a link to the abstract. To see the full article you have to subscribe to the journal. Every college that has a political science department subscribes, so you can access it from computers on campus for free.
http://journals.cambridge.org/actio...C5572694FB.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=715376
“Constructivism” is a school of thought in the social sciences. The authors of the article apply techniques championed by this approach to investigate the degree to which bias in figure skating judging followed Warsaw Pact/NATO lines during the cold war.
Do judges tend to give higher-than-average scores to skaters from their own countries? (Duh.) To skaters from their own political/military blocs? Do they give lower-than-average scores to skaters from countries that they perceive as “rivals” or “enemies?”
Here are a couple of statistics from the study. (Without going into statistical detail, a high positive number indicates positive bias, a high negative number negative bias., and 0 means no bias, compared to the judging panel as a whole.
…During the cold war (1948-1992)…After the cold war (1994-2002)
U.S judge/U.S. skater..… ... +.42 ………+.43
USSR judge/USSR skater…+.86 ……....+.57
U.S judge/USSR skater…... -.17 ............. -.27 for Russian skaters,
………………………………………….......+.11 for former SSR skaters
USSR judge/US skater…… –.22…….…. -.35
NATO judge/USSR skater… -.19………..-19
Warsaw judge/US skater….. -.21………-.16
The title is “The Cold War on Ice: Constructivism and the Politics of Olympic Figure Skating Judging.”
Here is a link to the abstract. To see the full article you have to subscribe to the journal. Every college that has a political science department subscribes, so you can access it from computers on campus for free.
http://journals.cambridge.org/actio...C5572694FB.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=715376
“Constructivism” is a school of thought in the social sciences. The authors of the article apply techniques championed by this approach to investigate the degree to which bias in figure skating judging followed Warsaw Pact/NATO lines during the cold war.
Do judges tend to give higher-than-average scores to skaters from their own countries? (Duh.) To skaters from their own political/military blocs? Do they give lower-than-average scores to skaters from countries that they perceive as “rivals” or “enemies?”
Here are a couple of statistics from the study. (Without going into statistical detail, a high positive number indicates positive bias, a high negative number negative bias., and 0 means no bias, compared to the judging panel as a whole.
…During the cold war (1948-1992)…After the cold war (1994-2002)
U.S judge/U.S. skater..… ... +.42 ………+.43
USSR judge/USSR skater…+.86 ……....+.57
U.S judge/USSR skater…... -.17 ............. -.27 for Russian skaters,
………………………………………….......+.11 for former SSR skaters
USSR judge/US skater…… –.22…….…. -.35
NATO judge/USSR skater… -.19………..-19
Warsaw judge/US skater….. -.21………-.16
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