Do Undergraduate Students' Ratings of Perceived Aggression in Sport Reflect Athletes' Self-Reported Aggression? Comments on Pedersen (2007)

Abstract

In 2007 Pedersen described the results of undergraduate students' ratings of 16 common sports based on their perceptions of the aggression in each sport. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether Pedersen's sample's perception of aggression actually reflects aggression of athletes who participate in these sports. Therefore, response of 1,441 British competitive athletes (817 men, mean age = 21.5, SD = 4.9) to a short aggression questionnaire were analysed to distinguish whether the same pattern of ranks reported by Pedersen could be replicated. In general, data were consistent with Pedersen's rankings (Correlations were moderate to high), but some exceptions were evident, particularly for male athletes.