DR. JOHN'S CASE NOTES : THE DOPELER EFFECT I have always been fascinating by players who tend to rush into things, whether it be in their bidding, opening leads or play of the cards. These instinctive, compulsive, speed merchant players are in my view all victims of the DOPELER EFFECT. The definition is quoted " as a tendency to make stupid mistakes, when rushing". However, with bridge players it is the tendency to believe that ideas that come to you rapidly must be smart, when in actual fact they are completely stupid. So by believing these absurd ideas to be "smart" immediately before they are said or put into practice, others feel compelled to brand such players as "complete idiots". Nothing seems to shake their belief that their gut instinct visions, and sudden flashes of inspiation, are nothing short of brilliant. Sadly, there are pressures put upon players to bid and play each set of boards within a certain time, and so the perfect conditions are created for the dopeler effect to take hold on these highly susceptible players. Victims prone to this condition quickly develop a habit of coming up with more and more instant smart ideas. However, as each successive one becomes even more ludicrous and costly, the dopeler effect rather perversely gets much stronger ! All victims, it seems, strongly believe in the law of averages, which suggest to them that the next batch of instinctive visionary ideas really will be smart..............and so the dopeler effect becomes an established vicious circle which can never be broken.