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Sporting contests: seeing red? Putting sportswear in context
Candy Rowe1, Julie M Harris, S Craig Roberts
1School of Biology & Psychology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, UK. candy.rowe@ncl.ac.uk
Nature
|October 28, 2005
Summary
Sports scientists discovered that shirt color impacts contest outcomes. Even without red, athletes wearing certain colors win more, suggesting a mechanism beyond red signaling dominance.
Area of Science:
- Sports Science
- Behavioral Psychology
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Previous research by Hill and Barton indicated that red sportswear may confer a competitive advantage in combat sports.
- This advantage was hypothesized to stem from red signaling dominance or aggression, drawing parallels with animal behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of sportswear color on contest outcomes beyond the presence of red.
- To explore alternative mechanisms, if any, that might explain color-based winning biases in sports.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of a dataset from the 2004 Olympic Games, focusing on men's combat sports.
- Comparison of winning percentages across different color combinations, specifically examining contests where neither participant wore red.
Main Results:
- A winning bias was observed even in contests where neither fighter wore red.
- This finding suggests that factors other than red signaling dominance contribute to color-related performance differences.
Conclusions:
- The influence of sportswear color on sports performance may involve mechanisms independent of red.
- Further research is needed to identify the specific factors and psychological or physiological pathways responsible for these observed biases.
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