Cornel Nesseler’s research while affiliated with University of Stavanger and other places

In this paper, we investigate how individuals evaluate human and large langue models generated responses to popular questions when the source of the content is either concealed or disclosed. Through a controlled field experiment, participants were presented with a set of questions, each accompanied by a response generated by either a human or an AI. In a randomized design, half of the participants were informed of the response's origin while the other half remained unaware. Our findings indicate that, overall, participants tend to prefer AI-generated responses. However, when the AI origin is revealed, this preference diminishes significantly, suggesting that evaluative judgments are influenced by the disclosure of the response's provenance rather than solely by its quality. These results underscore a bias against AI-generated content, highlighting the societal challenge of improving the perception of AI work in contexts where quality assessments should be paramount.

Objective This study aims to investigate implicit discrimination in soccer by examining whether participants’ evaluations of fouls are influenced by players’ skin color. Methods An optimal experimental design was developed where players’ skin color in soccer videos was artificially altered. Participants were asked to choose the most appropriate penalty for a player committing a foul. The data were analyzed using ordered logit regressions to assess whether skin color influenced the penalties assigned. Results Contrary to previous research and popular belief, the results show that participants’ penalty decisions were not significantly influenced by the players’ skin color. Conclusions The findings suggest that implicit discrimination may not be present in this context, challenging previous studies that found racial biases in sports. The experimental design and results lay the groundwork for further research into implicit bias in sports contexts.

Research has suggested many ways in which professional football players can increase their penalty shooting success rate. We set up a field experiment testing these recommendations. We perform the experiment with one of the most successful youth academies in the world. All players are highly skilled, including prospective and current Brazilian youth national players. The players either decide themselves where to shoot or the coach tells them where to shoot. The coach does not reveal if the decision is based on a random allocation or his own choice. The algorithm randomly selects where players must shoot. The results from the experiment show that the best outcome is when players choose where they want to shoot. Coaches and random algorithm have a lower success rate, although following research‐based recommendations. The findings are important as they show that researchers should test their recommendations in the field as they do not necessarily translate into real‐life settings.

Understanding and assessing worker performance is of major sociological and economic interest. This importance is mirrored in the extent of research that analyzes incentives and behavioral traits influencing worker performance. Most of this research focuses on workers in a peaceful or stable environment. However, a large share of the global population works in a country that is at war. To examine the situation of workers in such a vulnerable situation, micro-level data is necessary but often unavailable. Esports is an exception as data regarding professional players – workers – is accessible. Here, we examine how Ukrainian and Russian professional players behave before and since the Russian invasion. Contrary to popular thinking, we find a sizable improvement in performance. For Ukrainians, the effect is especially prominent for live events, and for Russians, for online events. Our results demonstrate that the behavior of professional gamers rapidly changed after the occupation.

Purpose: Previous research indicates gender discrimination in leadership positions. However, performance and not gender should be the key indicator when evaluating a leader. We examine the performance effect of changing from a female to a male coach and vice versa. Methodology: We analyze 1,093 Billie Jean King Cup singles matches from 2006 to 2016, with the match result as the dependent variable. First, we examine the very short-term effects arising from the change of a coach with a regression discontinuity design. Second, we evaluate the short-, medium-, and long-term performances. Findings: The results show that the gender of the new coach has no significant effect on performance. However, when a female coach succeeds another female coach, performance improves. This provides an argument in favor of female leadership. Practical Implications: Team managers should primarily focus on the quality of the coach instead of gender. The results also suggest that a continuum of female leadership is likely advantageous. Research Contribution: This paper contributes to the debate regarding the misrepresentation of women as head coaches and offers an avenue for further research. ARTICLE HISTORY

Whether one looks at revenue, investment or coverage, men’s sports do better than women’s. Many assume that absolute differences in quality of athletic performance are the driving force. However, the existence of stereotypes should alert us to another possibility: gender information might influence perceived quality. We perform an experiment in which 613 participants viewed clips of elite female and male soccer players. In the control group, participants evaluated unmodified videos where the gender of the players is clear to see. In the treatment group, participants evaluated the same videos but with gender obscured by blurring. Using a regression analysis, we find that participants rate men’s videos higher – but only when they know they are watching men. When blurring obscures the gender, ratings for female and male athletes do not differ. We discuss implications for research and the sports industry.

In this paper, we examine ethnic discrimination using sport as a laboratory. Applying a field experiment in the three Scandinavian countries-Sweden, Norway, and Denmark-we test whether foreign female minority groups experience greater rejection rates when seeking inclusion in amateur soccer clubs. Soccer coaches were contacted by e-mail using native and foreign-sounding names from selected groups, requesting to participate in trial practice. Previous findings show persistent discrimination of foreign minority groups in the labour market, and recent work suggests that discrimination also occurs in the context of soccer. Our findings from Scandinavia show that Sweden is the only country that shows statistically significant signs of discriminatory patterns, and the probability of experiencing discrimination increases with cultural distance. However, cultural distance appears to have no influence in Norway and Denmark. We further investigate whether male or female coaches demonstrate different discriminatory behaviour when being contacted, but our analysis shows almost no gender differences. Findings suggest that how men and women differ in their discriminatory behaviour is context specific. The differences identified across nations and previous studies are discussed to better understand the mechanisms of discrimination.

We use three natural field experiments to examine anti-Semitism in Italy by sending email inquiries to amateur football clubs, landlords, and employers and comparing the response rates to emails sent with Jewish- and non-Jewish-sounding names. Italy is an interesting country as discrimination was heterogeneous and geographically unevenly distributed during World War II. We analyze if today's anti-Semitism in Italy is geographically correlated to the deportations and killings of Jews during the Holocaust. The results show significant discrimination when looking for football club and an apartment, but not when seeking a job. We find markedly different results for women. Comparing areas with different societal and economic implications provides us with a more informed perspective about the extent of discrimination.

Background/Objectives The study considers the problem of the inclusion of people with obesity in the context of the growing role of computer-based work. Negative stereotypes about people with obesity still hold even when they are irrelevant in tasks that require little physical activity. Subjects/Methods Using data from the realm of competitive video gaming (eSports) and image recognition-based metric of body mass index metric derived from artificial intelligence, we examine the individual performance depending on weight. The sample includes 821 players and 127,533 player performance observations. Results For shorter tasks, individuals with normal weight performed better than individuals with obesity. For longer tasks, however, people with Class III (severe) obesity outperformed all others, and their advantage increased with task duration. Conclusions Our findings shed light on an understanding of how actually body features are related to objective individual performance in a competitive context.