YESSODA DEVADAS 012019072657

TUTORIAL B (WEEK 2) 16TH JULY 2020

ARTICLE - https://thesportjournal.org/article/exposure-to-womens-sports-changing-attitudes-toward-
female-athletes/

1) The author investigate that how increasing exposure to women’s sports impacts attitudes
towards women’s sports.
Therefore, the hypothesis are :
(a) Individuals who are exposed to a 4-week intervention of watching women’s sports
will be more interested in women’s sports.
(b) Individuals who are exposed to a 4-week intervention of watching women’s sports will be
less prejudiced towards women in sport.

2) Experiment were done towards college students from various courses related to psychology,
sociology, and sport sciences at a Midwestern institution.
There were 2 experiment done :
(a) Survey – for the control group students
(b) Watched various highlight footage of masculine women’s sports (e.g., soccer, hockey, etc.)
– For the experimental group students

METHOD

89 participants were divided in half for the control and experimental condition.

(a) Control group – complete a survey each week

(b) Experimental group - watched various highlight footage of masculine women’s sports (e.g.,
soccer, hockey, etc.) each week

Reason - Highlight footage of women’s sports that had athletes competing was purposefully
selected in order to foster a connection to the athletes of the respective footage. The researchers
chose this method because identification with a sports team is associated with emotional
responses toward the competition.

RESULT

Result indicate that the intervention decreased prejudice towards female athletes after 3 weeks
but had no effect on interest towards women’s sports. The data does not support hypothesis 1,
but does provide limited support for hypothesis 2.
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3) CONCLUSION
The intervention is limited, though, because of the number of female participants compared to
male participants and because of the use of video links opposed to live-footage or in-person
experiences. In addition, the study featured participants who were college students and not
specifically sports fans. Future studies should implement interventions on male sports fans and
children which involves watching women’s sports in person of local or regional teams relative
to the participants. Specifically targeting children, for example, may improve attitudes toward
female athletes by moulding the attitudes of the next generation.

I think the data does not support their hypothesis because the experimental students are not a
sport fans. Participation in the study may have bored participants because they were either
watching video links or because they were only taking a survey each week. It does not support
the researchers hypothesis because people feel women’s sport are bored and not interested as
much as the men’s sport.