The impact of open feedback on conformity among judges in rope skipping

The open feedback system used in aesthetic sports functions such that after judges have rated a performance they are informed of the scores given by the other judges before rating the next performance. This experiment was designed to determine whether such open feedback results in conformity among panels of judges in rope skipping. Twenty-seven certified difficulty judges were randomly divided into panels of maximum five judges. These panels had to rate the same 30 videotaped individual performances: 15 in Phase 1 and 15 in Phase 2. Two independent variables were orthogonally manipulated: feedback (or none) during Phase 1 and feedback (or none) during Phase 2. Feedback increased score-conformity within a panel of judges in Phase 1. In contrast with previous research in synchronized swimming, this conformity did not last when feedback opportunities were removed in Phase 2. The conformity observed in the present study seems to be caused by normative influences rather than by informational influences.