I recently attended a college basketball game where the scoreboard malfunctioned so we knew the total score but not the totals for individual players. After the game, I believed one player had the most points and my friend thought it was another so we looked up the statistics.
Both of the players we chose had 10 points each — but two competitors each had 23 points! We were at the game in person, paying attention, and still were significantly wrong.
When I thought back on the game, the players we chose as the point leaders made baskets in a flourish while those actually atop the totals made consistent buckets from underneath or in a less dramatic fashion. We were deceived to elevate flashy instead of understated.
We also got the free throw percentage wrong and overestimated the misses instead of those that went in.
It was a good reminder that our perceptions can bias us and before we make decisions or judgments it’s wise to verify what is actually a fact. Even without meaning to, we see what we want to see and need a neutral scoreboard to keep the record straight.
