The fairness of long and short ABBA-sequences: A basketball free-throw field experiment

•We conducted a basketball free-throw field experiment with the ABBA-sequence.•We find a second-mover advantage with four throws each and no first- or second-mover advantage with ten throws each.•We assessed psychological traits of our subjects.•Subjects with a higher locus of control had a lower ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of behavioral and experimental economics 2020-12, Vol.89, p.101562, Article 101562
Main Authors: Bühren, Christoph, Kadriu, Valon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ABBA-sequence
Athletes
Behavioral economics
Experiments
First-mover advantage
Locus of control
Professional basketball
Psychological pressure
Psychological traits
Records & achievements
Scores
Second-mover advantage
Sequential tournaments
Sports psychology
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Summary:•We conducted a basketball free-throw field experiment with the ABBA-sequence.•We find a second-mover advantage with four throws each and no first- or second-mover advantage with ten throws each.•We assessed psychological traits of our subjects.•Subjects with a higher locus of control had a lower chance of scoring. Sequential tournaments in the ABBA-format are supposed to be fair. In a basketball free-throw field experiment with a low scoring rate, we find a second-mover advantage in short ABBA-games with four attempts each and no first- or second-mover advantage with ten attempts each. Analyzing the shot success of single moves, we argue that player B perceives a psychological advantage in short sequential competitions with a low expected success rate. In our long ABBA-sequence, insignificant second-mover advantages on shot level balance each other out on game level. We control for psychological traits of our subjects: Locus of control has a negative effect on performance in our experiment.
ISSN:2214-8043
2214-8051
DOI:10.1016/j.socec.2020.101562