Red beats Blue

[Aiemond]

MrBubbles said:
but isnt this likely just chance rather some other factor?

It depends on how well done the study is. When doing a study with many different participents a good study wil try to match similar players. So, they are going to match teams with similar skills and similar factors when doing the statistics. They are gong to look at many differnt skills and try and find confounders (these are factors that make it look like a certain trait may have an effect but it does not. An example would be looking at the death rate in some state. It may be high and researchers would go wtf you are more likely to die living here! But, after looking closer, the population of this state has a higher number of elderly folks than other states, thus it would be a confounding factor [since its just more people dying from old age rather than some factor within the state]). Also, they would be using a statistics package. The statistics will look at if there is a significant difference in both teams. IF the statistics say that there is it means its highly unlikely that this is due to chance (usually 5% or less. also, this is if the study is done well). The larger the sample size the better the statistics.

 

But, remember the methodology for the study and the team interpereting the results are what truly matters. No matter what the statistics say, if the study is carried out poorly the results will not be conclusive. Also, they will prolly do more tests. One study does not an answer make. Remember,in science a correct experiment should have similar results even when done more than once by different people.