The Wide World of Sports Reporting: The Influence of Gender- and Race-Based Expectations on Evaluations of Sports Reporters

The present experiment examined the influence of gender- and race-based norms associated with different sports on evaluations of newspaper reporters. Insights from communication accommodation theory framed this investigation, which predicted that the gender and racial compositions of sports (i.e., female/male sport, predominately black/white athletes) and the gender/race of the reporter would interact in predicting evaluations of reporters (with existing gender and racial attitudes as covariates). Results generally supported these relationships. Female commentators were evaluated more favorably in the context of women's sports. A comparable pattern emerged for race-based evaluations, although these results were somewhat less consistent.