d many terms of praise (such as clever, handsome, agile, and SO on) and then asked to evaluate someone in a news story. They thought much more highly of that person than a similar group who was asked to read the same story after memorizing a list of negative words. For an introduction to Kahneman and Tversky's findings and theories, see Choices, Values and Frames (Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 2000). Notes 8. For an entertaining and informative discussion of these psycho- logical effects, see John Allen Poulos, A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1996). Availabil- ity error, the halo effect, and the anchoring effect are discussed on pp. 14-18. 9. This is called "confirmation bias" and has been widely validated. For example, basketball fans are familiar with the phenomenon of a "hot hand," a player who shoots baskets in streaks. Once a player is on a such a streak, it can last for several periods or even the remainder of the game. Cornell University social psychologist Tom Gilovich analyzed the hits and misses in the Philadelphia 76ers' 1980-81 season and discovered that, statistically, the play- ers were no more likely to sink a ball after making their previous shot than not. He also examined the Boston Celtics' free-throw records and showed that the outcomes of the two throws were independent. Players made the second shot 75 percent of the time, whether the first ball went in or not. Given a copy of Gilovi- ch's paper, Red Auerbach, the brain behind the Boston Celtics, read it and declared, "It doesn't mean anything." That's how deeply confirmation bias is set. Gilovich is the founding father of "hot hand" research based on a 1985 article on the subject coau- thored with Robert Vallone and Amos Tversky. See "The Hot Hand in Basketball: On the Misperception of Random Se- quences," Cognitive Psychology, 1985, pp. 295-314. IO. John Keller, "Bell's Curve: A Telecom Novice Is Handed Chal- lenge of Remaking AT&T-Company Surprises Everyone by Tap- ping Printer Chief as Bob Allen's Suc