Abstract
Baseball teams that have won the World Series show the ability to bounce back after losing a game during the Series (Nahinsky, 1991). These World Champion teams are more likely to win a game if they have lost the previous game in the Series than if they have won the previous game. This apparent motivational effect is produced by a statistical artifact resulting from the constraint that ultimately they are the winner of the Series. On the other hand, for teams that eventually win the World Series, the probability of winning any individual game is greater than one would expect by chance, even if one corrects for the fact that they will be the Series winner.
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References
Hull, C. L. (1943). Principles of behavior: An introduction to behavior theory. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Jones, R. A. (1977). Self-fulfilling prophecies. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Nahinsky, I. D. (1991). Bouncing back in the World Series. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 29, 131–132.
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The author thanks Janice Steirn for her helpful comments., University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.
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Zentall, T.R. “Bouncing back” from a loss: A statistical artifact. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 29, 384–386 (1991). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333949
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333949