A study has found choosing the color red for a uniform in competitive sports can affect the referee's split-second decision-making ability and even promote a scoring bias.

Now psychologists Norbert Hagemann, Bernd Strauss and Jan Leissing from Germany's University of Muenster have found referees tended to assign more points to taekwondo competitors dressed in red than those dressed in blue.

The study, published in the August issue of Psychological Science, was conducted by the researchers presenting 42 taekwondo referees with videos of blue- and red-clad competitors sparring.

The two sets of clips were identical except that the colors were reversed in the second set so the red athlete appeared to be wearing blue and vice versa.

After each video the referees were asked to score the performance of each competitor, red or blue.

The psychologists said competitors wearing red were awarded an average of 13 percent more points and the points seemed to increase after the blue athlete was digitally transformed into a red athlete and decrease when the red competitor turned blue.

"Referees' decisions will 'tip the scales' when athletes are relatively well-matched but have relatively small influence when one is clearly superior," the researchers said in a statement.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26137526/

Shameless bump!

http://www.theherald.co.uk/features...y_how_team_colours_might_get_results.php

"So how could colour have such a profound influence on our competitive psychology? The answer may lie in instinctive behaviours we have evolved over millions of years. Human faces turn red with blood when we become aggressive. In the animal world, both red and blue are thought to be related to fitness, aggression and high levels of testosterone.

Could it really be, then, that pulling on a blue or red vest signals high levels of testosterone, striking fear into the opposing side? Although the red shirts worn by the players of Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool are clearly no longer the overriding reason for their dominance, historically it may have played a part in a team's success, says Paul Preenan, of Amsterdam University. "It could be that red helps intimidate opponents," he explains. "It could be that referees favour red and don't penalise red teams so much. It could also be that football crowds favour red more and cheer louder for their team."

search on youtube for hittin town and click the one with gerrard, babel, torres, carra...cant get the link to work. worth a look