Psychological cognitive distortion and its relationship to decision-making among referees in the Iraqi Stars League for the 2024-2025 football season

Objective: The research aims to to develop a cognitive distortion scale for referees in the 2024-2025 Iraqi Stars League and to identify the role of cognitive distortion in decision-making and match control among football referees. The research was limited to referees in the 2024-2025 Iraqi Stars League and was conducted at the headquarters of the Iraqi Football Association. Research methodology: the researchers used aspects of systematic scientific analysis and interpretation to explain and depict a specific phenomenon or problem. This is achieved by collecting information and data about that problem, classifying it, analyzing it, and carefully studying it. The research community was defined as the referees of the Iraqi Stars League for the 2024-2025 season, totaling (70) referees who participated in the league. The researcher selected a sample of (37) referees, representing (52.86%) of the community, for the application of the two scales and to determine the level of the two scales and the relationship between them. It should be noted that the researchers used the entire community (70) referees participating in the league (100%) in the process of constructing the scales and deriving the scientific basis for the data. (5) referees, representing (7.14%) of the community, Results: The results indicate that there is a statistically significant difference in both cognitive distortion and decision-making compared to the hypothesized mean. This suggests that cognitive distortions may be clearly prevalent in the sample, while they appear to have acceptable decision-making ability. Conclusions: Psychological cognitive distortion is a distortion of active thinking. Therefore, we observe that most referees in the Iraqi Stars League for the 2024-2025 season exhibit cognitive distortion.