IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joepsy/v106y2025ics0167487024000849.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The superstar effect on perceived performance in professional football: An online experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Pan, Yu
  • Pereira, Marco Henriques
  • Gomez-Gonzalez, Carlos
  • Dietl, Helmut M.

Abstract

We conduct a novel experiment to investigate whether football superstars consistently receive more favorable evaluations than non-superstars. Engaging 500 participants from Prolific, we randomly assign them to evaluate the same football videos with either visible or obscured players. In the control group, where players are visible, superstars receive lower performance ratings than non-superstars, challenging common perceptions. This trend is more intensified in the treatment group, where obscured identities result in even lower ratings for superstars, relative to non-superstars, suggesting a diminished superstar premium. These findings provide causal experimental evidence contributing to the literature on evaluation bias and the superstar effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Pan, Yu & Pereira, Marco Henriques & Gomez-Gonzalez, Carlos & Dietl, Helmut M., 2025. "The superstar effect on perceived performance in professional football: An online experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:106:y:2025:i:c:s0167487024000849
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2024.102776
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487024000849
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.joep.2024.102776?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2020. "The Rise of Income and Wealth Inequality in America: Evidence from Distributional Macroeconomic Accounts," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(4), pages 3-26, Fall.
    2. Arrondel, Luc & Duhautois, Richard & Laslier, Jean-François, 2019. "Decision under psychological pressure: The shooter's anxiety at the penalty kick," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 22-35.
    3. Goldstein, Robin & Almenberg, Johan & Dreber, Anna & Emerson, John W. & Herschkowitsch, Alexis & Katz, Jacob, 2008. "Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better? Evidence from a Large Sample of Blind Tastings," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 1-9, April.
    4. Egon Franck & Stephan Nüesch, 2012. "Talent And/Or Popularity: What Does It Take To Be A Superstar?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(1), pages 202-216, January.
    5. Karine van der Straeten & Christopher Anderson & Luc Arrondel & André Blais & Jean-François Daoust & Jean-François Laslier, 2020. "Messi, Ronaldo, and the Politics of Celebrity Elections: Voting for the Best Soccer Player in the World," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-02923896, HAL.
    6. Thomas Biegert & Michael Kühhirt & Wim Van Lancker, 2023. "They Can’t All Be Stars: The Matthew Effect, Cumulative Status Bias, and Status Persistence in NBA All-Star Elections," American Sociological Review, , vol. 88(2), pages 189-219, April.
    7. Parshakov, Petr & Gasparetto, Thadeu & Votintseva, Nadezhda & Shakina, Elena, 2024. "Beyond the pitch: Exploring the role of beauty in soccer player salaries," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    8. Fabienne Jedelhauser & Raphael Flepp & Egon Franck, 2023. "Overshadowed by Popularity: The Value of Second-Tier Stars in European Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 24(8), pages 1026-1054, December.
    9. Luc Arrondel & Richard Duhautois & Jean-François Laslier, 2019. "Decision under psychological pressure: The shooter's anxiety at the penalty kick," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-02072860, HAL.
    10. Póvoa, Angela Cristiane Santos & Pech, Wesley & Viacava, Juan José Camou & Schwartz, Marcos Tadeu, 2020. "Is the beauty premium accessible to all? An experimental analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Felix Koenig, 2023. "Technical Change and Superstar Effects: Evidence from the Rollout of Television," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 207-223, June.
    12. Oliver Budzinski & Sophia Gaenssle, 2018. "The economics of social media (super-)stars: an empirical investigation of stardom and success on YouTube," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3-4), pages 75-95, October.
    13. Jerry W. Kim & Brayden G King, 2014. "Seeing Stars: Matthew Effects and Status Bias in Major League Baseball Umpiring," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(11), pages 2619-2644, November.
    14. Enzo Brox & Michael Lechner, 2024. "Teamwork and Spillover Effects in Performance Evaluations," Papers 2403.15200, arXiv.org.
    15. Dilmaghani, Maryam, 2022. "Chess girls don’t cry: Gender composition of games and effort in competitions among the super-elite," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    16. Anil Özdemir & Helmut Dietl & Giambattista Rossi & Rob Simmons, 2022. "Are workers rewarded for inconsistent performance?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 137-151, April.
    17. Kausel, Edgar E. & Ventura, Santiago & Rodríguez, Arturo, 2019. "Outcome bias in subjective ratings of performance: Evidence from the (football) field," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 75(PB).
    18. Budzinski, Oliver & Gaenssle, Sophia, 2018. "The economics of social media stars: An empirical investigation of stardom, popularity, and success on YouTube," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 112, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    19. David M. Waguespack & Robert Salomon, 2016. "Quality, Subjectivity, and Sustained Superior Performance at the Olympic Games," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(1), pages 286-300, January.
    20. repec:nas:journl:v:115:y:2018:p:4887-4890 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Liao, Chien Hsiang, 2021. "The Matthew effect and the halo effect in research funding," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1).
    22. Luc Arrondel & Richard Duhautois & Jean-François Laslier, 2019. "Decision under psychological pressure: The shooter's anxiety at the penalty kick," Post-Print halshs-02072860, HAL.
    23. Benjamin D Douglas & Patrick J Ewell & Markus Brauer, 2023. "Data quality in online human-subjects research: Comparisons between MTurk, Prolific, CloudResearch, Qualtrics, and SONA," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(3), pages 1-17, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lackner, Mario & Sonnabend, Hendrik, 2021. "Coping with advantageous inequity—Field evidence from professional penalty kicking," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Xu, Minbo & Wang, Oliver, 2023. "Psychological pressure and performance in competitive environments: The first-hole effect in youth golf," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    3. Bar-Eli, Michael & Krumer, Alex & Morgulev, Elia, 2020. "Ask not what economics can do for sports - Ask what sports can do for economics," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Krumer, Alex, 2020. "Pressure versus ability: Evidence from penalty shoot-outs between teams from different divisions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Mir Danial Mousavi & Mir Damoun Mousavi, 2023. "The Effect of Stakeholder’s Pressure on firm Market Performance and the Mediating Role of Corporate Responsibility, Sustainable Supplier Selection, and Marketing Capability," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(3), pages 179-191, August.
    6. Kassis, Mark & Schmidt, Sascha L. & Schreyer, Dominik & Sutter, Matthias, 2021. "Psychological pressure and the right to determine the moves in dynamic tournaments – evidence from a natural field experiment," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 278-287.
    7. L'aszl'o Csat'o & D'ora Gr'eta Petr'oczy, 2020. "Fairness in penalty shootouts: Is it worth using dynamic sequences?," Papers 2004.09225, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    8. László Csató, 2021. "A comparison of penalty shootout designs in soccer," 4OR, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 183-198, June.
    9. Mourelatos, Evangelos & Mourelatos, Haris, 2022. "Online video sharing and revenues during the Pandemic. Evidence from musical stream data," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1050 [pre.], Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    10. Mourelatos, Evangelos & Mourelatos, Haris, 2022. "Online video sharing and revenues during the Pandemic. Evidence from musical stream data," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1050, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Viktor Bozhinov & Nora Grote, 2019. "Performance under Pressure on the Court: Evidence from Professional Volleyball," Working Papers 1901, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    12. Marius Ötting & Christian Deutscher & Sandra Schneemann & Roland Langrock & Sebastian Gehrmann & Hendrik Scholten, 2020. "Performance under pressure in skill tasks: An analysis of professional darts," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-21, February.
    13. Rachel Scarfe & Carl Singleton & Paul Telemo, 2021. "Extreme Wages, Performance, and Superstars in a Market for Footballers," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 84-118, January.
    14. Gaenssle, Sophia & Budzinski, Oliver, 2019. "Stars in social media: New light through old windows?," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 123, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    15. Francisco B. Galarza & Gabriella Wong, 2017. "The Impact of Price Information on Consumer Behavior: An Experiment," Working Papers 106, Peruvian Economic Association.
    16. Paul Bose & Eberhard Feess & Helge Mueller, 2022. "Favoritism towards High-Status Clubs: Evidence from German Soccer," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 422-478.
    17. David M. Waguespack & Robert Salomon, 2016. "Quality, Subjectivity, and Sustained Superior Performance at the Olympic Games," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(1), pages 286-300, January.
    18. Boze Li & Yandong He & Yuxuan Xiu & Bokui Chen & Wai Kin Victor Chan, 2024. "The distribution of scientific project funds model based on adaptive similarity fitting and NSGA-II," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(12), pages 7585-7622, December.
    19. Raphael Flepp & Oliver Merz & Egon Franck, 2024. "When the league table lies: Does outcome bias lead to informationally inefficient markets?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 414-429, January.
    20. Albers, Thilo & Bartels, Charlotte & Schularick, Moritz, 2022. "Wealth and its Distribution in Germany, 1895-2018," CEPR Discussion Papers 17269, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Superstar effect; Perceived performance; Evaluation bias; Experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:106:y:2025:i:c:s0167487024000849. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/joep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.