The Hot Hand in Basketball: On the Misperception of Random Sequences, image 1 of 11 / 1
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The Hot Hand in Basketball: On the Misperception of Random Sequences

in Stuff I Re‑read by Caleb Ortiz

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The Hot Hand in Basketball: On the Misperception of Random Sequences on “Stuff I Re‑read”, a list by Caleb Ortiz on TheLysts.

Details

Photo
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Name
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Authors
Thomas Gilovich, Robert Vallone, Amos Tversky
Year
1985
Field
Psychology / Behavioral Statistics
Why it matters
Argues that the beloved “hot hand” in basketball is mostly our brain seeing patterns in random streaks.
My take
This is the classic that ruins barstool myths. You read it, you look at a 10–0 scoring run, and you immediately wonder how much is real momentum versus coin-flip chaos.

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