How Television Commentary Affects Children's Judgments on Soccer Fouls

Abstract

An experiment was designed to investigate how television commentary during soccer matches affects children's judgments on aggressive fouls. Dutch children (N = 96) from grades 5 and6 watcheda series of fouls on video with three types of commentary: disapproving, neutral, or approving. When the commentator disapproved of the players' aggressive actions, children rejected the fouls more strongly than when the commentator approvedof the actions. The commentary effect was found with fouls among two foreign players, fouls by foreign players against Dutch players, andfouls by Dutch players against foreign players. The commentary effect appeared to apply not only to children who did not particularly like soccer matches on television but even to children who fancied the genre.