Wearing red gives opponents blues
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 19/05/2005)
Sporting competitors are more likely to emerge victorious if they are wearing red, according to a study of performance in a range of Olympic events.
Red coloration is associated with high testosterone, fitness and aggression in a variety of creatures, such as mandrills, sticklebacks and birds.
Now two evolutionary biologists at Durham University have found the same effect might also operate in humans to subconsciously put an opponent on the back foot, whether in a fight or a sporting event. Indeed, it could be another reason that Liverpool have reached the final of the UEFA Champions' League.
The researchers believe that, to ensure a level playing field, sporting authorities should pay more attention to the colour of sporting attire.
To study whether red affected sporting prowess, Russell Hill and Robert Barton studied four one-on-one disciplines in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games - boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling - in which combatants were randomly assigned either red or blue clothing or body protectors.
Those wearing red, but otherwise matched in ability to their blue opponents, were more likely to win, they report today in the journal Nature.
A preliminary analysis of the Euro 2004 football competition suggests that red can influence team sports, too. Five teams were found to play better when they wore red, scoring more goals.
Mr Hill said there was plenty of anecdotal evidence of this effect. "We can obviously also point to the fact that post-war red teams - Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool - have dominated the English football scene."
He also cited the Telegraph's "wonderful description of Bill Shankly's words after Liverpool wore red for the first time in the European Cup", written by Henry Winter:
"That Anderlecht tie witnessed further evidence of Shankly's awareness that footballers are not machines, but human beings susceptible to positive and negative influences. That night, Liverpool were clad for the first time in an all-red livery. 'It had a huge psychological effect,' recalled Shankly. 'The players looked like giants and played like giants.' Anderlecht were overwhelmed."
The team concludes that the "implications for regulations governing sporting attire may be important".
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May 30, 3:11 am my little girl was born.
Now the military needs to develop a uniform that's camo at a distance and red in close quarters.
did you ever see the technology that the ***anese are working on for uniforms?
they're essentially a fiberoptic suit such that when you look at the person, you literally see what is behind them, they become transparent. I've seen one those things, it's still in it's infancy but they are way too cool. just like predator.
Wearing red gives opponents blues
