A clear pattern of international bias in gymnastic judging is that judges award gymnasts from their own country higher scores than other judges who have evaluated the same routine. Two experiments tested whether international bias in gymnastic judging could be partially explained by unconscious influences in the form of exposure or perceptual fluency effects. It was reasoned that repeated exposure to a gymnast's routine would lead to perceptual fluency effects that would be misattributed to increased appreciation of the routine. This misattribution could result in judges awarding higher scores. No support was provided for the hypothesis of unconscious influences. The results are discussed in terms of the possible factors that contributed to a null effect and the practical implications for gymnastic judging.
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