Comments on: Umpires and Expectation Bias http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/04/06/umpires-and-expectation-bias/ Sociological Images encourages people to exercise and develop their sociological imaginations with discussions of compelling visuals that span the breadth of sociological inquiry. Fri, 10 Apr 2015 08:55:19 +0000 hourly 1 By: fork http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/04/06/umpires-and-expectation-bias/comment-page-1/#comment-589048 Mon, 07 Apr 2014 16:40:00 +0000 http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/?p=62253#comment-589048 ” It’s not that what you see is what you get. It’s that what you expect is what you see. ”

Love that.

]]> By: Big Data Reveals Why Umpires Make Bad Calls « KellyMitchell http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/04/06/umpires-and-expectation-bias/comment-page-1/#comment-589047 Mon, 07 Apr 2014 16:18:51 +0000 http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/?p=62253#comment-589047 […] It is Opening Day for the St. Louis Cardinals and since KellyMitchell is headquartered in St. Louis, we thought we’d share this Big Data study that reveals why some umpires make bad calls. The study finds that umpires sometimes favor pitchers based on home field, All-Star status, race, and reputation. The better the pitcher, the more often their pitches are favored and pitchers labeled as wild are given less confidence. This subconscious benefit of the doubt is what leaves some batters, like Matt Holiday, shaking their heads. […]

]]> By: Bill R http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/04/06/umpires-and-expectation-bias/comment-page-1/#comment-589011 Sun, 06 Apr 2014 22:08:00 +0000 http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/?p=62253#comment-589011 Understanding the nature of our mental representation of the physical world has intrigued philosophers, psychologists and others since Plato’s time. Expectations, often honed through training and long-term experience, help us use our physical senses to perceive, and shape our beliefs about what is happening around us and what we understand to be true. Without such expectations the world would be a perceptual mess and we’d face sensory overload our entire lives. (Ever drive to work on automatic pilot?)

So expectations (subconsciously recalled memories perhaps) certainly shape what we “see”, but that’s a very good thing; it enables survival.

Here’s a mental experiment for you to help put these baseball stats in perspective: Imagine what the results would be if 20 umpires were pitted against 20 middle aged adults who had never seen a baseball game before. Sure, the umps make mistakes in predictable ways, but they’ve learned how to perceive in a way that keeps their accuracy quotient pretty high. Judging a strike on a ball traveling 90 feet at 75 MPH is a learned skill.

]]> By: BrendaSBarrientez http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/04/06/umpires-and-expectation-bias/comment-page-1/#comment-589003 Sun, 06 Apr 2014 16:50:00 +0000 http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/?p=62253#comment-589003 We also expect that a pitcher who is way ahead in the count will throw a waste pitch and that on the 3-0, he’ll put it over the plate. My guess is that umpires share these expectations. The difference is that the umps can turn their expectations into self-fulfilling prophecies. http://qr.net/sBx9

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