A touch of Sports Gambling?

Although I don't do much sports/track betting, I thought I saw some potential in this New York times article:

Excerpt:

"To see whether a rich vocabulary of supportive touch is in fact related to performance, scientists at Berkeley recently analyzed interactions in one of the most physically expressive arenas on earth: professional basketball. Michael W. Kraus led a research team that coded every bump, hug and high five in a single game played by each team in the National Basketball Association early last season.

In a paper due out this year in the journal Emotion, Mr. Kraus and his co-authors, Cassy Huang and Dr. Keltner, report that with a few exceptions, good teams tended to be touchier than bad ones. The most touch-bonded teams were the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, currently two of the league’s top teams; at the bottom were the mediocre Sacramento Kings and Charlotte Bobcats. "

Could you get an edge? Maybe, if there is something to it. Possibly, might even be useful with the horses and dogs and their handlers.

Full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/health/23mind.html

I would guess (after the fact), the N.O. Saints were possibly more bonded, just by virtue of the whole Katrina deal, and would have been a good bet to be more authentically touchy feely team.

First, correlation does not necessarily mean causation. However, what may be happening here is the cause and effect are backwards; it is the winning that is inducing the touching. Losing teams are unlikely to have happy players, and sad players are less likely to want to show physical signs of affection for their teammates.

I should have quoted more:

"To correct for the possibility that the better teams touch more often simply because they are winning, the researchers rated performance based not on points or victories but on a sophisticated measure of how efficiently players and teams managed the ball — their ratio of assists to giveaways, for example. And even after the high expectations surrounding the more talented teams were taken into account, the correlation persisted. Players who made contact with teammates most consistently and longest tended to rate highest on measures of performance, and the teams with those players seemed to get the most out of their talent.

The study fell short of showing that touch caused the better performance, Dr. Kraus acknowledged. “We still have to test this in a controlled lab environment,” he said."

Of course, there's the last paragraph.

But anyway, I have noticed in the past that every time the "you're in the money song" plays at the casino, I or someone else have a jackpot. Coincidence?


Just kidding.

Quote: Wizard

First, correlation does not necessarily mean causation. However, what may be happening here is the cause and effect are backwards; it is the winning that is inducing the touching. Losing teams are unlikely to have happy players, and sad players are less likely to want to show physical signs of affection for their teammates.

Very well put.

I would be nice if the folks at ESPN could understand this--they seem to be particularly adept at applying a 5th Grade level to their statistical analysis.