Bias in Judging

If you are a competitor or judge/referee you should read this article I've linked. It's drawn from a speech given at an equestrian conference but relevant to karate/kung-fu competitors.
When I was competing I experienced the effects mentioned in the article and as a judge I can see clearly the influences she writes of. Every person who has bowed in and competed will relate. I remember that Karate Illustrated once wrote that they used what they called "Regional Shaft Factor" to weight some tournament results. They recognized that a competitor from Georgia may not do as well in California because, well, "dude, you're not from around here". I was fighting middleweight at the Internationals in California way back when. The division was so big that we were divided into two rings. I was waiting to fight when I saw Keith Vitali fight and lose his first match in the next ring. Keith was the top-rated fighter in the US at the time. What I saw was "Shaft Factor". Keith was "on" but not scoring; the judges just were not going to let an East Coast fighter win that day.  He protested the calls, but to no avail. He didn't have a coach there to protest for him. That's not unusual for many top-line competitors in our sport. On the other hand, it sometimes works in reverse when a rated fighter enters the ring and even if the other person beats him, they still lose. The author calls it "nationality bias". If they're from a country know for a certain style or that they always win (like Russian gymnasts used to), they get the nod.
The article speaks of judging shortcuts, which is very interesting and addresses how a judge may want to conform to what other judges do to eliminate or reduce negative spectator reactions. We've seen that, huh?
   Many sports have professional judges or refs -  not karate. It's not unusual to have someone judge that has never even been in a tournament. That's probably not the best thing.
   One interesting statement she makes is that there is so much complex movement going on in some sports that it exceeds the ability of the human brain to process it. That's a good reason to have five judges on a forms board. If one of the five is eating cookies and another is watching the girls go by you'll still have three sets of eyes (in theory) watching the action. You laugh, I've seen that.
  Take a look at the article. I think you'll enjoy it.
 http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2010/11/04/natural-bias-hidden-controversy-judging-sports    Natural Bias, the Hidden Controversy in Judging Sports