Cultural Differences, Behavior and Assimilation: Player Nationality and Penalties in Football

We examine the impact of a different cultural background on individual behavior, focusing on the aggressiveness level of southern and nothern European football players in the English Premier League. We find that southern European football players collect on average more yellow and red cards as compared to their nothern European colleagues. We also find that the initially more aggressive football violent behavior displayed by southern European players coverges towards the local average, the longer their experience in the Premier League. Altough limited to a particular area in sports, we claim that this change in behavior patterns of immigtants respresents an example of cultural assimilation.status: publishe