Blurring athletes' genders reveals misconceptions

+ remembering World War I US Edition - Today's top story: We blurred the gender of soccer players and had people rate their performances − with surprising results [View in browser]( US Edition | 11 November 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Only 4% of sports media coverage around the world is devoted to women’s sports. You’ll often hear defenders of the status quo say that there’s no market for women’s sports – that the games are a drag, the athletes less exciting to watch. But if their genders were somehow obscured, would viewers be able to distinguish their performances? For decades, the scenario was purely hypothetical. However, thanks to advances in video technology, sports economists Carlos Gómez González and Cornel Nesseler were able to go through each frame of soccer highlights to blur the bodies of the players in ways that hid their gender. In a recent study, [they showed the videos to soccer fans and non-sports fans and had them rate the players’ performances](. Across the board, the ratings were the same. Only in the control group – when the players’ genders were visible – did participants give the male players higher ratings. “The findings,” González and Nesseler write, “challenge conventional wisdom about the potential of the women’s sports market. Any evaluation of quality in women’s sports should stop and think about whether biases are playing a role.” This week we also liked articles about the [brinkmanship that stops Congress from getting much done](, how [mucus helps keep your body healthy]( and why it will be hard for the men who are suing the [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]( over what they allege is the misuse of their donated money to prevail in court. [ [Get a global perspective on the news, with the best of The Conversation’s journalism from around the world, twice weekly.]( ] Nick Lehr Arts + Culture Editor Would people still call a women’s soccer match boring if they didn’t know the players’ genders? isitsharp/E+ via Getty Images [We blurred the gender of soccer players and had people rate their performances − with surprising results]( Carlos Gómez González, University of Zurich; Cornel Nesseler, University of Stavanger A common criticism of women’s sports is that female players aren’t as entertaining or skilled as their male counterparts. Two researchers decided to put this notion to the test. The Mormon Temple is the centerpiece of Temple Square in Salt Lake City. AP Photo/Douglas C. 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