Self Serving Bias, Seneca, and the Seahawks
Quick thanks to everyone who made the Social Ref Book a #1 new bestseller in the Softball Category on Amazon. Get the Ebook or Paperback here: https://geni.us/SocialRefBook
Self Serving Bias Will Never Go Away - How Will You Handle it as a Referee or Umpire?
Been a Seattle Seahawks fan for almost 18 years since I moved to the Emerald City. Saw some crappy teams, saw some Superbowl teams, was even lucky enough to see the ‘Hawks demolish the Broncos in person at the Superbowl in New York City.
But as a Social Ref, I’m a bit of an outsider, because I am not a full on “homer.” I don’t think they are always right, and everyone else is always wrong. They had a great season, played some epic games in 2019 including the overtime game against San Fran on Monday night Football, and the “Return of Beast Mode/Hollister 1 foot away” game in week 17 on Sunday Night.
They are always a fun team with Russell Wilson and Pete Carrol.
Yet even I was suprised by the amount of “Self Serving Bias” I saw as the Hawks went down to defeat in the second round of the playoffs 28-23. It felt like a very typical seahawks game. Start off really slow and sloppy, play a bend but don’t break defense, and come on like crazy in the second half. It was the same script in week 17 with the division on the line against San Fran, and the same script against Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. They came on like crazy in the second half, after being down 21-3 at halftime, and just came up a little short.
Great season, great game, great effort by Russell in the 2nd half, who played amazing. Get ‘em next year…. right?
Apparently not. Apparently the refs suck!
In Letters From A Stoic, a book I have been transfixed with for the last 3 months (if you follow our twitter feed @SocialRefHabits), Seneca speaks about the planets and the movements of “heavenly bodies;”
“If there are pointers to events, what difference does it make to be aware in advance of things you cannot escape? They are going to happen whether you know about them or not.”
As a referee or umpire, Self Serving Bias is like the planets. They will be there and move, whether you understand them or not. Whether you recognize “the Bias,” or not. Whether you choose to fight it, or try learning how to defuse it.
I can think of 6 things in 15 seconds off the top of my head that resulted in the Seahawks losing that game against the Packers.
1) Dropped Pass by Jeron Brown / Sack on 3rd down in the same drive
2) Missed 50 Yard FG in First Half
3) Failure to Double Devante Adams (or cover him all game)
4) Huge Conversion by Mr Adams on 3rd and 9 for 20 something yards before the 2 minute warning
5) Scoring 3 measly points in the first half of a NFL Playoff game
6) Rushing three times for 9 yards on the Second offensive possesion of the game
… and on and on. I watched the game. I watched the whole season.
So imagine my lack of suprise when a local sports talk radio analyst was asked why the Seahawks couldn’t get it done - His first immediate response:
“There were a lot of missed calls.”
Jeeeebus.
<BTW the Seahawks got the gift of the whole game, a fumble by Hollister that could not be awarded because of a technicality on review!>
Apparently for lots of fans, the spot of the Jimmy Graham 3rd down catch, overwhelmed every other missed opportunity and mistake for the entire game.
Part of understanding self serving bias is not to ignore all the mistakes and missed opportunities, but to remember the last thing that happened, instead of the MOST IMPORTANT thing that happened.
In their great book “The Power of Moments” Chip and Dan Heath explain that memorable moments come from peaks, and ENDINGS. You remember your trip to Disney world, and grade it, mostly on the best moment (the peaks) and the ending moments - how it finishes up.
In this case, the Seahawks season finished up with a BIG HUGE YELLOW LINE that everyone swore Jimmy Graham was half a yard short of.
Never mind the yellow line is never exact. Never mind that the Packers would have likey just fallen forward on 4th and inches, never mind letting graham actually catch the ball, after a huge catch on the previous 3rd down by Adams, was the achilles heel of the Seahawks for the whole game, and most of the season.
The Seahawks lost the game because they let Aaron Rodgers convert a disgusting 9 of 13 on 3rd downs.
Thats an amazing, gross number.
But as a Social Referee, good luck trying to use those stats and logic to defend a peak moment of controversy that comes at the end of a game, and a season.
I had a flag football game end in one of the worst ways possible years ago. A super “controversial” TD catch with less than a minute left, where I called a TD for the offense even though the reciever ended up losing the ball out of their hands!
Sounds terrible right?
Not Exactly…
The TD was for the lower seeded team to go up by two scores with 40 seconds left. The reciever in the endzone caught the ball falling backwards - both feet were down - their butt was down - and then at the very end the ball was jarred loose by the ground. (Dez Bryant and Megatron - eat your heart out)
And oh, by the way, the losing team threw 3 straight INT’s in the first half, including on back to back plays at one point.
But it was an end moment, and all the team needed to call me the worst ref in the world and argue for 5 minutes before storming off the field.
Just like Seneca said, I didn’t understand Self Serving Bias, so I fought back with all my might trying to explain why I awarded the catch (just like the refs did after the replay of the 3rd down catch - even introducing cringe-worthy language of “further video evidence’).
But it was about the play, it was about the loss, it was about the end, it was about Self Serving Bias.
I will let Local Seattle Radio host Dave “Softy” Mahler take it from here, one of the few locals to not get swept away into the heavens and planets by Self Serving Bias: