The home disadvantage in championship competitions: team sports |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Interdisciplinary PhD Program, Dalhousie University, Canada;2. Department of Environmental Science, Dalhousie University, Canada;3. Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Canada;4. College of Kinesiology, University of Saskatchewan, Canada;1. Risk and Information Management Research Group, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary, University of London, London E1 4NS, UK;2. Forensic Mental Health Research Unit, Centre for Psychiatry, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London, London EC1M 6BQ, UK;3. Biological and Experimental Psychology Research Group, The School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London E1 4NS, UK;1. Ghent University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Watersportlaan 2, B-9000 Gent, Belgium;2. Ghent University, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Gent, Belgium |
| |
| Abstract: | ObjectivesThe possibility that home teams might choke in decisive games of championship series was first proposed by Baumeister and Steinhilber in 1984. Their hypothesis was that when the home team was on the verge of winning a championship, it tended to choke. As a result, the home advantage would be smaller in last games than in early games of the same series. The present paper updates the original data for baseball and basketball to 2012 and adds a parallel study of ice hockey.Design/MethodThe analysis compares home win percentage early in a championship series with home advantage in the regular season. Its main focus, however, is on the games in a championship series between the early and late games.ResultsThe first of two main results is that in all three sports the percentage of home wins in Game 1 of a championship series is substantially higher than home advantage in the same sport in the regular season. The second result is that, while the tendency for percent home wins to decrease regularly over the course of a best-of-seven series is confirmed in all three sports, this decrease is complete or almost complete by Game 4, well before the home choke, according to Baumeister and Steinhilber, is supposed to occur.ConclusionThe home-choke hypothesis as originally advanced in 1984 is not supported by subsequent results and analysis. |
| |
| Keywords: | Home choke Home advantage Championship series Regular season Back-toback games |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
