Reinvent Wheel? Blue Room. Defusing a Bomb? Red Room. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/science/06color.html
In a study on Olympic uniforms, anthropologists at Durham University in England found that evenly matched athletes in the 2004 Games who wore red in boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling defeated those wearing blue 60 percent of the time. The researchers suggested that red, for athletes as for animals, subconsciously symbolizes dominance.
of course the key part of that quote is tne ‘evenly matched athletes’.
Excellent. My tri club just got a new title sponsor this year and changed our kit from red/white/blue to all red. Plus, I just got a new road frame for this season and it is red and white. Sounds like it is going to be a good season, I suppose I can quit training now and count on the red to carry me to victory.
I suppose it is time to jettison my bright blue TT bike though…
The finding that red is associated with winning in sports has been reported before - I think there was an analysis of retrospective data on US sports leagues a few years back. It’s pretty interesting to think that something that seems so arbitrary can actually influence sporting success.
I bet its got more to do with red being popular and or red being chosen by top athletes more often
rather than red CAUSING them to be top athletes
The finding that red is associated with winning in sports has been reported before - I think there was an analysis of retrospective data on US sports leagues a few years back. It’s pretty interesting to think that something that seems so arbitrary can actually influence sporting success.
It would be interesting to see if the results hold up in a larger sample. It would also be interesting to see if there is a similar correlation for sports like cycling. The sports studied are all 1 on 1, “combat” sports with judges.
Assuming the color really is giving an advantage, it could be because the judges perceive the red to be dominant and view their actions more favorably. Or it could be because the competitors are subconsciously intimidated by their powerfully-clad opponent.
In either case, the results would not necessarily hold up in triathlon.
Very possible, especially when looking at retrospective data on sports leagues. I’m not clear on how singlets are assigned to Olympic boxers though; I thought maybe the colour was randomly assigned prior to each match. In that case the results are a little more powerful.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard something like this. I’ve heard similiar things for sports teams overall that wear red and black as being winners.
Reinvent Wheel? Blue Room. Defusing a Bomb? Red Room. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/science/06color.html
In a study on Olympic uniforms, anthropologists at Durham University in England found that evenly matched athletes in the 2004 Games who wore red in boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling defeated those wearing blue 60 percent of the time. The researchers suggested that red, for athletes as for animals, subconsciously symbolizes dominance.
of course the key part of that quote is tne ‘evenly matched athletes’.
How are the winners for those Olympic games determined? Is it by judges?
If so maybe it is the judge who is influenced by the uniform color and not the athletes.