| Abstract: | The possible existence of nationalistic bias in the scoring of dressage tests in the competition at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympic Games was investigated. A panel of 5 judges simultaneously scored each performance, with scores totaled for each competitor. Team competition required riding the FEI Grand Prix de Dressage test. A national team consisted of 4 horse-rider pairs, with the top 3 scores counted for the national team total. Four out of 5 judges scored horse-rider pairs from their own nation, for a total of 16 out of 53 competitors scored by co-national judges. Nineteen riders, 9 of whom were scored by co-national judges, competed for individual medals by riding the prescribed FEI Grand Prix Special test. The scores of judges rating their co-nationals were compared by analysis of variance with scores of judges rating competitors from other nations.In the team competition, scores by co-national judges averaged 4.67 points higher ( <.075) than scores by judges rating competitors from other nations, for a potential total point advantage for the team score of 14 points. Three out of 4 judges rating co-nationals gave the highest minimum score of any of the 5 judges to a competitor from their own nation. Three out of 4 judges rating co-nationals gave the highest average score of any of the 5 judges to a competitor from their own nation. It is possible that nationalistic bias may have made a difference in placings of national teams, since at the 1988 Olympics 4 teams were placed with point differentials of less than 14 points. In the individual dressage competition, scores by co-national judges averaged 6.39 points higher (P<.025) than scores by judges rating competitors from other nations. Three out of 9 individual finalists scored by co-national judges were given the highest score of any judge by the judge from their own nation. Individual placings may also have been affected by nationalistic bias since 9 placings out of 19 finalists were decided by a margin of 6 points or less.Although interpretation of these results is limited by the small number of judges and competitors involved, they suggest that a tendency for nationalistic bias was present in the judging of dressage performances in a world-class equestrian event. |
