Fink Tank: US colour code that fails English test
Daniel Finkelstein
Saturday August 21 2010, 1.01am, The Times
Football – Blackburn Rovers v Norwich City Carling Cup Second Round – Ewood Park – 24/8/10 Mame Biram Diouf (L) celebrates scoring the third goal for Blackburn and completing his hattrick with Phil Jones and Pascal Chimbonda (R) Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Andrew Boyers Livepic
ANDREW BOYERS/ACTION IMAGES
I am a big fan of Thomas Gilovich, the psychology professor. And when he says something about sport, I sit up and take notice.
Gilovich it was who, in a pioneering study, established one of the most important facts in all of Fink Tankdom. He demonstrated that there is no "hot hand" in basketball. In other words, fans think that teams and players have streaks of form, but they don't. What seems like form is randomness. And what is true in basketball is true in football, too.
Red Auerbach, the great basketball coach, was unimpressed when he heard of Gilovich's research. "Who is this guy?" he asked. "So he makes a study. I couldn't care less." But when Gilovich makes a study, I could care