Articles written by The San Diego Union-tribune

The San Diego Union-Tribune, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 25, 2023

In sports and gambling, there is a (mistaken) belief that a player who is performing better than normal will continue to play well. We humans sometimes fail to appreciate statistical independence - i.e. two events are independent when the occurrence of one doesn't change the probability of the other. There have been several scientific experiments to document the "hot-hand" fallacy in basketball. A player could make several shots in a row, but their shooting percentage will...