Tip of the Week
Baseball, hot dogs and apple pie
It was a little unscheduled break in the action during the baseball game.
It was the 8th inning, and the Texas Rangers were safely in the lead when a fan decided to run the bases.
While the overexuberant fan in this game a few years ago may have wanted the crowd to focus their attention on him, his actions may have had the opposite result (at least in the long-term), according to a study on the accuracy of umpire calls.
According to an article in the Hechinger Report published in 2021, economists studied the accuracy of umpire calls. Researchers found that umpire errors increased after periods of intense focus, but there was no increase in errors after a short break. The authors of the study point out that their research isn’t just about baseball, but more about the human attention span and the implications for education and other areas, such as work.
When it comes to work, it seems like we’ve been in a period of intense focus for the last year with all the FAFSA changes and errors, system updates, changing regulations and other industry stress.
And while I don’t condone running onto the field of Major League Baseball game, maybe we all need a little break in the action.
Hopefully, you will get a nice break in the action this holiday weekend. Happy Fourth of July!
– By Catherine Mueller
