FanShot

Hot hand isn't dead (yet)

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some new info on the oft discussed issue of getting "hot" This is the money quote: players take significantly more difficult shots when they get hot, and they shoot a tiny bit better than they’d be expected to on those more-difficult shots. It doesn’t necessarily prove that the hot hand exists, but it provides much-needed evidence to support the theory. It’s a great first step to properly understand the hot hand. And it exposes the inherent assumption in the previous hot hand research, ensuring that future research doesn’t make the same mistake. And let’s not overstate it -- it wasn’t a big mistake, at least not on the part of the researchers who wrote the original paper. They presented their findings and properly stated their assumptions. The big mistake lies in the mass proselytization of their hot hand disproof. Scores of intelligent people shared their findings as gospel without properly understanding the limits of their finding. It’s a mistake that’s far too common among the statistically-minded.