Michael Bar-Eli

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev | bgu · Division of Business Administration

When making talent-selection decisions in sport, coaches, scouts, program directors, and policymakers typically adopt two approaches: The subjective approach, also known as the coach's eye, where these professionals select or de-select athletes based on their personal observations and impressions; and the objective approach, where they apply a mult...

In this study, the three-person officiating (3PO) principle was employed as an innovative method to examine decision-making (DM) processes among basketball referees. We aimed at exploring whether the ranking, experience, and teamwork among 25 basketball referees could predict accuracy of DM in ambiguous situations taken from basketball games. An an...

Previous research has reported that the gambler’s fallacy could be detected in goalkeepers’ behavior during penalty shootouts. Following repeated kicks in the same direction, goalkeepers were more likely to dive in the opposite direction on the next kick. We employ here a unique data collection approach and accurately measure the exact location of...

We review some topics in which soccer penalty kicks are related to phenomena in game theory, decision making and psychology. In particular, we discuss the game theoretic analysis of the kicker's and goalkeeper's behavior and its relation to the concept of mixed strategy Nash Equilibrium. The main idea is that both players should not follow a predic...

There is plenty of research on penalty kicking in men's soccer, with a focus on either the goalkeeper or the penalty taker. Yet women's soccer and their playing behaviour are under-represented in research. The current study was designed to examine gender differences in the choice patterns of expert kickers and goalkeepers during penalty shooting in...

This study was designed to explore coaches' half-time speeches and whether players perceive these speeches as having an impact on their performance later in the game. A mixed-methods convergent design was used. Participants were nine male basketball players aged 19-34 (M = 27, SD = 4.76) from a team playing in the Israeli Basketball Premier League,...

A two-phase study was conducted on shooting three-point shots in basketball in pressure/no-pressure game situations. In Phase 1 – a subjective approach, our aim was to discover what the players and coaches thought about shooting beyond the three-point arc when the shooters were performing under defensive pressure or when they were free of such pres...

Most studies on sport officials ignore the variance of the data in terms of individual differences. Here we highlight the need to focus on these differences in refereeing as the main point and goal of the current review. We argue that the study of individual differences is important for referee selection, development and performance evaluation. We...

In this article we list the advantages of using sports data for economic research. We also provide a rich overview of economic literature that used sports data to test different fundamental economic theories as well as articles that presented divergences of economic decision making from neo-classical theories. Finally we present articles that were...

Judgment and decision making in sporting officials is a challenging task that involves the use of context. Although process models of decision making describe decision contexts, none of the existing models explains when sports officials use rule-driven decision making, or game management. The basic idea of our work is that referees use a subjective...

Momentum is often cited in the media and in other sources as an important factor in performance over time in business, politics, sports and other areas. Yet, academic research on whether momentum actually exists is mixed. This study aims to assess momentum perceptions in a context in which momentum could be relevant, but where empirical data have s...

Previous studies suggest that approach motivation (a focus on achieving positive outcomes) is related to relative left-hemispheric brain activation, which results in a variety of right-oriented behavioral biases. It has been argued that during FIFA World Cup penalty shootouts, soccer goalkeepers whose team was behind and therefore had approach moti...

Several prior studies have shown that success during fierce sport competitions may put extra pressure on teams that lag behind and boost performance of teams that experienced success. In basketball, games that are tied at the end of regulation time proceed to five minutes overtime. An overtime is a particularly stressful situation because players a...

The literature on momentum is still undecided, with mixed results whether momentum exists or is only perceived to exist ("hot hand fallacy"). We explore whether momentum exists by looking at cases in which a basketball player has three consecutive free throws. A free throw is a well-defined task executed in a stable environment, allegedly giving mo...

This study examined the temporal effects of technical fouls on the performance of the fouling and opposing teams in elite basketball games. A sample of 80 technical fouls was collected from 65 international games. The fouls were charged either to players on court or to the bench players/coaching staff. Performance measures considered were the point...

An attacking basketball player initiating significant physical contact with a defender who has already established a legal and stationary position, should be called with an offensive foul. Offensive foul situations are particularly ambiguous and complex, making the referee’s task a difficult one. In such conditions of complexity and constraints of...

Despite the prevalence of the momentum concept, the literature is still divided on whether psychological momentum actually exists. We aimed to detect psychological momentum in the specific setting of overtime in basketball games. We collected data from 11 NBA seasons and identified all games that were tied after the end of regulation time. Comeback...

Objectives: The study of judgment and decision-making in sports is at least as old as the anniversary of FEPSAC we celebrate with this special issue. It seems therefore appropriate to look into the past, present and future of this topic. Design: For the past, a focus of the review is relating the European perspective of the co-authors into a larger...

It has been previously observed that basketball free-throw (FT) shooting efficiency decreases towards the end of the game. The aim of the current study was to explore possible determinants for this distinctive pattern during close games (point differential of equal or under 2 points during the final minute of the game). A sample of shots attempted...

In the current observational study, we aimed to examine the questionable use of the diving act in the penalty area in soccer. The study is based on 339 events in 160 filmed games played in Division 1 in Israel, where a case of physical contact observed between an offensive player and a defensive player resulted in the falling of the offensive playe...

Tipping behavior is analyzed in a field experiment where restaurant customers received excessive change, either 10 or 40 Shekels (about $3 versus $12). One third of the tables reported the extra change to the server and returned it. Tips were higher with the higher level of extra change. Returning the extra change was negatively correlated with tip...

The notion that "success breeds success, and failure breeds failure" is a widely held belief applied by people to a variety of situations in everyday life. Initial success is assumed to generate confidence, which then increases the likelihood of success in subsequent trials. Repeated failures are expected to lead to diminished future accomplishment...

Abstract Previous research has shown that changes in shot difficulty may have rendered the hot-hand effect in basketball unobservable and are potentially a result of defensive adjustments. However, it has not been directly analysed whether strategic changes indeed take place in response to streakiness and whether they are effective with respect to...

Abstract We examine behavioural changes of basketball players arising from the hot-hand belief and use data of 1216 National Basketball Association games to measure the effect of cold and hot streaks on three proxies of shot difficulty. We find that the more consecutive shots players make (miss), the more difficult (easier) shots become along the t...

This study investigated the validity of the clutch player's reputation in the game of basketball.•The performance of 16 potential clutch players and teammates was examined in relation to five performance measures.•Data were concerned with the final five minutes of the second and fourth quarters in each close/tied game.•The analysis of shooting data...

The article reports the results of a field experiment used to study dishonest behavior in a natural setting. Customers in a restaurant in tables of one or two diners who paid with cash received excessive change of either 10 or 40 Shekels (about $3 or $12). A majority of customers (128 out of 192) did not return the excessive change. Repeated custom...

The current work questions the putative tendency for success to be self-promoting in a non-competitive practice setting. Gilovich, Vallone, and Tversky's [(1985). The hot hand in basketball: On the misperception of random sequences. Cognitive Psychology, 17, 295–314. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(85)90010-6] classic controlled shooting experiment in basket...

The preface often determines the fate of a book (to read it or not to read it). Thus, a preface must be short and it must explain the main point of the book as concisely as possible. The focus of our study, from a purely academic point of view, is the phenomenon of “complexity” of human systems acting in extreme conditions of sport contest. The stu...

The purpose of this article is to describe a theoretical model and practice examples of judgment and decision making bias within the context of inclusion in physical education and sports. After presenting the context of adapting for inclusion, the theoretical roots of judgment and decision are described, and are linked to the practice of physical e...

The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) to describe the different types of knowledge, skills, and individual characteristics of highlevel coaches from individual and team sports, as perceived by the coaches themselves; (b) to assess the similarities and differences between high-level individual and team coaches; and (c) to reflect on possible...

Human resources are the most crucial element in the selection of suitable fitness instruction trainers (FIT) and the results of the screening process impact greatly on the entire physical training system in the Israeli army, both in the short-term and the long-term (potential officers, young officers and developing and veteran officers). The aim of...

This study was designed to validate a new instrument created to measure motives for physical activity (PA) – the PALMS (Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale), which was found to yield sound psychometric properties. Regular exercisers, ages 9 – 89 (M = 28.65; SD = 16.48), from over 30 different fitness and recreational facilities in Israel...

Purpose Local authorities around the world provide different forms and different amounts of direct and/or indirect assistance to professional sport teams, which in most cases are owned by private business entrepreneurs. Findings from various studies indicate that professional sports teams do not make a significant contribution to a city in terms of...

This investigation examined how wives of senior politicians perceived their role as the spouse of a politician, and how this perception affected their lives. Ten wives of Israeli senior politicians participated in the study. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted individually, with topics and issues specified in advance. Results demons...

Maximization and optimization in sportJDM historyThe development of JDM research in sportRationale and structure of this book

The tasks of refereesPerceptual limitationsPrior knowledgeRules of information integrationImproving referees' JDMSummary

What are the components of expertise in JDM?How can we measure JDM expertise?How can we explain JDM expertise?How can we develop JDM expertise?Summary

Subjective expected utility theoryProspect theoryDecisional field theorySimple heuristic approachSummary

PsychophysicsSocial judgement theorySocial cognitionSummary

Biases in judgements of sport performancePredictions and bettingSummary

Judging one's own performanceWhat choices are athletes confronted with?How do athletes choose?JDM training for athletesSummary

JDM as a leadership taskManagerial JDMCoaches' JDMSummary

In 1968, a young high jumper named Dick Fosbury revolutionized his field by winning the Olympic gold medal with a back-first flop that he himself had invented. Through an in-depth analysis of the case of the Fosbury flop, we explore the process through which radical innovations can be achieved. Observations relating to the evolution of radical inno...

Basee sur la methode de la mesure fonctionnelle, une serie de 3 experimentations a explore l'importance que des joueurs de basket professionnels attribuent aux dispositions de joueurs attaquant ou defenseur a commettre des fautes anti sportives. Les 106 sujets sont des joueurs de sexe masculin de la ligue 1 de basket israelienne. L'experience 1 est...

The outcomes of penalty kicks in soccer have assumed the utmost importance in the last few decades. However, it seems that shooting strategy is often based more on intuition than on careful research. To find out what should be the kicker's best strategy, two studies were conducted. In the first one, data about 311 penalty kicks in top leagues and c...

This chapter discusses penalty kicks in soccer, interpreted within the framework of behavioral economics. We present two behaviors of professional soccer players during penalty kicks that seem nonoptimal, and possibly indicate biases in decision making. We ask whether, despite the huge incentives involved in professional soccer and the possibility...

Until recently, the constraints imposed on decision makers by the human physical condition - situated both as a physical agent and within physical space - have played only an incidental, if not entirely inconsequential, role in conceptualizations of human decision making. The act of deciding has been positioned as the quintessence of traditional de...

We use a laboratory experiment to study the extent to which investors’ choices are affected by limited loss deduction in income taxation. We first compare investment behavior in the no tax baseline to a tax control setting, in which the income from investments is taxed. We find that investors significantly reduce their risk-taking as predicted by t...

Studies on innovation and creativity have been quite rare, thus far in the sport management literature. In this study, a comparative analysis was conducted between two great inventions — Tsukahara's Vault and Fosbury's Flop. Mitsuo Tsukahara and Dick Fosbury responded to open-ended questions designed to capture various dimensions in the development...

This article describes the impact of socio-political transformation processes on sport policy through the Israeli experience. A framework was developed for analyzing learning processes, utilizing the argument that under highly centralized systems, citizens' preferences regarding any area of life, including sport, are strongly affected by government...

This paper investigates the sources of the competitive advantage of sport clubs in the business environment. The analysis uses the Resource-Based View (RBV) as a model for identifying significant resources that clubs employ in their effort to gain and sustain competi-tive advantage. Using two historical case examples, the Israeli basketball club of...

The desire to hire the best athletes and coaches in order to maximize team performance necessitates generous compensation contracts, which in turn increase the risk of financial distress or even bankruptcy for team owners. Indeed, one of the largest expense items in the budget of professional sport teams is the remuneration of players and coaches....

In soccer penalty kicks, goalkeepers choose their action before they can clearly observe the kick direction. An analysis of 286 penalty kicks in top leagues and championships worldwide shows that given the probability distribution of kick direction, the optimal strategy for goalkeepers is to stay in the goal’s center. Goalkeepers, however, almost a...

Perceived coach's behavior in competition is analyzed in terms of a coach's positive, negative, or lack of response, which expectedly or unexpectedly follows a player's successful or unsuccessful action or is independent of player's action. The perceived contribution of these variables to extreme psychological arousal states (crisis, noncrisis) was...

ObjectivesThis article systematically reviews the state of the art of the “hot hand” research in sports. The belief that successive attempts of an individual player are positively related, as well as the behavior influenced by such a belief, will be investigated.MethodThe analysis of experiments, simulations, and archival data from actual sport com...

This editorial describes the study of judgment and decision making (JDM) as comprised of three major approaches: decision- and game-theoretical, psychological, and social-psychological/sociological. The main focus of decision-making research lies in the understanding of choices between a set of options. The broad distinction between judgments and d...

This study documents the effect of players' dismissals on team performance in professional soccer. Our aim was to determine whether the punishment meted out for unacceptable player behaviour results in reduced team performance. The official web site of the German Soccer Association was used for coding data from games played in the first Bundesliga...

This study extends support for the construct validity of the three strongest physical self-concept measures for 395 Israeli university students (60% women) aged 18 to 54, demonstrating a new extension of the multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) design that incorporates external validity criteria and a test of jingle-jangle fallacies. Structural equation m...

The purpose of this article is to present various static and dynamic normative models of risk-averse (RA), risk-neutral (RN) and risk-prone (RP) decision makers (DM) in single- or multiple-stage competition decisions, where each decision concerns passing or not passing a threshold goal set by the DM. The DM can be an athlete or a coach having a goa...

In this paper we predict the ranking of 11 Israeli basketball teams by employing the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) developed by Saaty (1). Four experts participated in the evaluation process and six criteria were introduced to evaluate and rank the teams. Consistency tests led to sensitivity analyses conducted with five criteria and three e...

The development of sport in any country is not a process in and of itself, but rather a refl ection of historical, social, economical, political, and ideological processes that continuously shape the character of that country. Sport in Israel is no exception to this rule; therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine how certain historical e...

This investigation prospectively predicted dropout among young soccer players, using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). First, behavioral beliefs required to develop a TPB-questionnaire were elicited from 53 male soccer players, aged 13-15 years. Second, at the beginning of the soccer season, 354 different male soccer players aged 13-15 years co...

In the State of Israel, basketball follows only soccer as the country's most popular sport. It is played by amateurs of all ages and at all levels, as well as by highly skilled and very well-paid professionals. Thousands of people throughout the country crowd arenas to watch basketball games, while many others view basketball games on television. Y...

In this study, the relationship between mental training with biofeedback and swimmers' performance was investigated. The Wingate five-step approach was used as a mental preparation technique for enhancing the performance among 16-18 year-old pre-elite swimmers. Participants (n = 40) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (a) experimental-...

In this study, the relationship between mental training with biofeedback and performance was investigated. An adapted version of the Wingate five-step approach was used as a mental preparation technique for enhancing the short-running performance among 16-18-year-old adolescent physical education pupils. Participants (n = 79) were randomly assigned...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between mental training with biofeedback and performance. An adapted version of the Wingate five-step approach was used as a mental preparation technique for enhancing the swimming performance among 11-14-year-old children swimmers. Participants (n = 38) were randomly assigned to...

Objectives: To study how visual anticipatory capabilities develop in high and low-skill tennis players and the role of years of practice (i.e. experience). It was expected that with accumulated experience differences will increase with skill-level, in particular under conditions of fast visual exposure which results in minimal environmental informa...

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to explore psychological performance crises under time pressure towards the end of basketball games. Three hypotheses were tested: (a) situations in the end phase of the game would be evaluated as highly critical; (b) crisis probability will increase within the end phase of the game, from its beginni...

A re-analysis of Bar-Eli et al. (1997) data was carried out to investigate the dynamics of goal attainability as a function of goal difficulty/attainability and goal proximity. More specifically, the re-analysis was designed to clarify whether setting relatively long term goals result in gradual increase in sit-ups gains or the dynamics of this pro...

In order to investigate cross-cultural motives for participation in youth sport 701 gymnasts (M age = 10.6) from Australia, Canada, India, China, and Israel were administered the Participation Motivation Questionnaire (PMQ Gill, Gross, & Huddleston, 1983). Principal components analysis of the PMQ on the total sample identified seven factors: Team/A...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the Profile of Mood States (POMS) and performance in a professional basketball team. Participants: seven male professional basketball players playing for the defending champions of the Israel Basketball League participated in this study. Experimental design: the POMS was administered...

To evaluate the effect of awareness of load on cardiovascular and metabolic responses, thirty males were compared in three different loads during upright deadlift isometric exercise, at 25%, 30% and 35% of maximal voluntary contraction for 3 min. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were found from rest to 25%, 30% and 35% for all physiological varia...

The authors investigated the performance of pilots and nonpilots on an attention-determined psychomotor task. Twenty male military helicopter pilots and 20 male physical education students completed 5 blocks of 10 trials of focusing and shifting dart-throwing tasks; in each group, 10 participants started with the shifting task, and 10 started with...

Three case studies were conducted of seventh graders teaching mathematics to third graders, in place of their classroom teacher, applying the Learning Through Teaching (LTT) method. Audio and video recording provided information on tutoring sessions. Trained observers coded the behaviours of the tutors and tutees during the tutoring sessions and in...

A five-step approach of mental training incorporating biofeedback (BFB) with videocassette recorder (VCR) is presented in this article. The technique consists of five stages, with flexible time-session limits that can be individualized. These are (a) introducing mental techniques, (b) determining and strengthening the appropriate BFB modality, (c)...

The aims of this study were to explore the relationships between goal specificity, goal difficulty and performance, and to determine if setting unrealistic goals would produce decreases in performance. The subjects were high school students from 15 schools and an attempt was made to control for the effects of social comparison. The schools were ran...

Examined the effect of competitive vs mastery goals on motor performance of individuals with task vs ego orientations. 97 male military high school students (mean age 19.38 yrs) completed the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire and a postexperimental questionnaire. Ss were classified as either high or low on task and ego goal orientatio...

This study investigated the effects of cold and exercise in the cold on the physiological and cognitive responses of 11–12-year-old boys. Children were dressed in sweat suits and exposed to cold (CD, 7°C), cool (CL, 13°C), and neutral (N, 22°C) environments for 110 minutes, with 10 minutes of light exercise (1 watt · kg body wt−1) midway through th...

This research is an initial attempt to sociologically investigate women in Israeli elite sport. Theoretically, this work is based mainly on the segmentation of the labor market approach. The frequency, percentages and proportion of Israeli male to female participation in both the Olympic and Maccabiah Games held between 1932 and 1992 have shown con...

This study presents a unique observational approach to basketball, based on the theory of psychological performance crisis in competition. The approach used takes into account the responses of a player' s actions to significant social factors such as team-mates, spectators, the coach and the referees. The contribution of this approach beyond tradit...

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which perceptions of external conditions, such as physical proximity to the exercise area and disposition--behavior congruity, affects observers' perceptions of personal causation of exercise adherers and non-adherers with regard to physical activity. The hypothetical scenario technique was use...

In this study, three psychoregulative procedures of relaxation and excitation were provided in combination with biofeedback to examine their role on physiological and athletic performance variables. Thirty-nine college students were randomly assigned to three groups of psychoregulatory treatment (autogenic and imagery training, AT+IT; music and ima...

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether breathing pattern may be used as a reliable index for the effectiveness of techniques applied for the regulation of mental states. Heart rate (HR), breathing pattern, galvanic skin response (GSR), and electromyogram (EMG) of the frontalis muscle were measured in 39 male and female subjects age...

The aim of this study was to examine whether outcome expectations can be generalized from one defined task to other tasks. A deception paradigm was employed in which outcome expectations were manipulated. High, low, or medium expectations toward performing five tasks, which gradually increased in complexity and shared a common skill, were manipulat...

Elevated heart rate and increased anxiety are two indicators of stress. This study investigated the heart rate and anxiety response to parachuting among seven novice and six experienced parachutists. Heart rate was measured from the moment of boarding the aircraft until landing. Anxiety was measured prior to boarding the aircraft. Heart rate was si...