2023 Volume 30 Issue 3 Pages 358-364
How do people judge the “kakkoyosa” (coolness) of a performance? In this study, we define “coolness” as “conformity to norms” and examine the factors that determine “coolness,” excluding “skillfulness,” toward freestyle basketball (FB) performers. Six males who had served as judges in FB battles were presented with ten experimental stimulus movies in which the performers were modeled in 3D and asked to rate their impressions. After the experiment was completed, they were asked to explain their ratings. The ratings were not consistent among the experimental participants. It is thought that the experimental participants evaluated the stimulus movies by looking for “specific FB mental images” that could be the “norm” for the stimulus movies and comparing them to the stimulus movies as the “FB norms.” However, we believe that the participants’ evaluations differed because of the different “FB norms” applied by the experimental participants. A qualitative examination of the interviews revealed that participants noticed differences in performer movements in the stimulus movies with regard to “waiting” and “entering.” Particularly, they tended to judge “coolness” in terms of the “waiting” situation, when the performers await their performing turn. It is thought that the “FB norms,” which are easily associated with “skillfulness,” were not used to judge “coolness” in the “waiting” situation. We believe that instead of the “FB norm,” the “performance norm,” referring to whether the performer behaved as a performer being watched by the audience while awaiting his/her turn to perform, was used to evaluate “coolness.”
