In this article for the New York Times, Justin Wolfers talks about a study about NCAA teams and the halftime spread. Interestingly, teams that are behind by 1 point at halftime are more likely to win than teams ahead by 1 point. He goes on to discuss how this effects the human psyche…

And here’s the key to the experiment: they randomly told some folks that they were a long way behind their opponent, others were told they were a little bit behind, or exactly tied, a little ahead, or even a long way ahead. Those who were randomly told they were a little bit behind improved their performance dramatically, while the other groups improved by about the same amount as the control condition (that is, the same improvement as those given no feedback at all).

If you like educated writing and/or statistics in sports, read this article. Just a great job by Justin and his Wharton colleagues.