Amari Rodgers' release offers example of recency bias

 

Amari Rodgers' release offers example of recency bias

Scribbr defines recency bias as the tendency to overemphasize the importance of recent experiences or the latest information we possess when estimating future events. Recency bias often misleads us to believe that recent events can give us an indication of how the future will unfold.

Last fall the Green Bay Packers released Amari Rodgers due to fumbling issues on kick and punt returns and Rodgers' inability to crack the team's rotation at wide receiver. Following his release from Green Bay, Amari Rodgers found a new home in Houston with the Texans. In his first game with the Texans Amari Rodgers scored a touchdown and recency bias flooded the internet with fans suggesting that the Packers misused Rodgers or that the other Rodgers, Aaron, drove Amari out or suggesting somehow that coaching failed to use Amari correctly. 

What is recency bias and how is it relevant to Amari Rodgers? Recency bias according to Wikipedia sources as a cognitive bias that favors recent events over historical ones and "gives a greater importance to the most recent event".

Amari Rodgers was released from the Green Bay Packers and we at Wisco Fanatics wished him the best while acknowledging that he needed a change of scenery. In his second active game with the Houston Texans Amari Rodgers recorded four receptions for 57 yards and a touchdown, his first career touchdown. After this touchdown people FREAKED OUT that the Green Bay Packers had made this huge mistake. What people failed to recognize was context, the Texans were missing several of their top receivers. It didn't matter, some people had things to say:

this may be one of the worst Packers takes in recent memory:

It took one touchdown for people to create a narrative that Amari Rodgers had somehow ascended to this amazing player based on four catches. Others believed that Aaron Rodgers was the problem for Amari Rodgers:

The recent release of Amari Rodgers showed us that clearly, Amari Rodgers had a single good game, and more power to him, we're happy for him. However, people need to be rational when it comes to a one game sample size in a game where a player was thrust into a prominent role on a bad team.

Scribbr also calls recency bias a type of cognitive bias that causes us to assume future events will resemble recent experiences. Amari Rodgers the rest of the season in 2022 only had eight more receptions and now early in training camp finds him looking for a third team in three years.

Recency bias can rear its head when we're talking about sports but also in life. The important thing to remember is that small samples of recent events do not hold the same amount of weight as the rest of their future or the rest of your future in your life.

Don't let recent events skew your perceptions when it comes to sports and don't let recency bias control your perception of your future!

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