The fans and the feeling of wanting to make the home crowd happy seem to subconsciously influence the referee. In psychology, evidence suggests that physical distance translates into psychological distance. People will use imperfect algorithms if they can even slightly modify them. And so this is in a way just like a practical engineering question: How do we get human beings to use computers?
What do gamblers and referees have in common? When do machines make better decisions than people? And has Stephen been replaced by a computer?