The Impact of Colors on Sports Performance

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Nadav Goldschmied discusses the influence of colors on sports performance, emphasizing the importance of team distinguishability for fans and referees.

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Nadav Goldschmied discusses the influence of colors on sports performance, emphasizing the importance of team distinguishability for fans and referees. The discussion delves into the psychological meaning of colors, the red superiority effect, and the association of black uniforms with aggression. The visibility contrast of white uniforms in judo is also considered. Despite these theories, research findings remain inconclusive due to limitations in sample size and methodology.

Image courtesy of interviewee. June 26, 2024

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This video is a discussion about the influence of uniform colors in sports on performance and perception. The conversation takes place on June 14th in London, where the speakers explore whether uniform colors can affect athletic performance. They highlight the importance of distinguishable colors for teams and officials during games.

The discussion includes a theoretical framework based on research by Elliott and Maier (2014), which posits that colors carry psychological meanings and can elicit either approach or avoidance responses. These responses can have subtle effects on performance in competitive sports.

Key findings presented include:

1. **Red Superiority Effect**: Research suggests that teams wearing red uniforms tend to win more often than those in other colors. This video effect has been observed in various sports, such as combat sports during the Athens Olympics and British soccer, where red teams are more successful, particularly in home games.

2. **Black and Aggression**: Studies indicate that teams wearing black may be perceived as more aggressive. Research found that NFL and NHL teams in black faced more penalties, which might stem from cultural associations and perceptions of aggression rather than actual behaviors.

3. **White Disadvantage in Judo**: There is a suggestion that wearing white in judo may confer disadvantages due to visibility, allowing opponents to anticipate moves.

The speakers critique existing research methods and findings, stressing the need for more robust, longitudinal studies with larger sample sizes to better understand these dynamics. They emphasize that while color may influence perception and referee decisions, the actual impact on behavior or performance is not definitively proven.

In conclusion, the discussion encourages future research focusing on referee perceptions and the contexts in which color effects are manifested, recognizing the complexity of the topic and the interplay between color, perception, and performance in sports.

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It's really important that the two teams

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are distinguishable, that, they know,

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folk from friend, that the, that the fans

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know, to distinguish the two

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that the referee obviously can distinguish.

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So it's clearly apparent, right?

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And it's, it's made as such. And, indeed it is.

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So it, stands to reason that we would also look

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for associations that, this so apparent,

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coloring schemes may influence performance.

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Um, but, my research

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is informing, informing me actually otherwise.

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But we can start from the, assumption

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that there is an effect

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and then work our way to, possibly,

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whether is not one,

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and I think it would be worthwhile grounding

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the discussion in the theory of, Elliot

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and Mayor from 2014 of,

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coloring context.

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So it's, it's a broader theory.

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It's not, it's, it does not only pertain to sport,

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but it's a, it's a good starting point.

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And, it argues several things, for example,

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that, colors have, psychological meaning

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beyond, physiological properties.

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Um, so they carry relevant, meanings to human beings

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and otherwise as well.

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Um, that, they elicit,

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a response that at the core is either approach

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or avoidance oriented.

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Um, and this is really, really important in sports where,

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if you gain, minimal advantage initially,

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it may make big, difference in the outcome,

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of the competition.

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Uh, it argues, for example, that those, the,

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the way that certain colors gain meaning

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is through two, two distinct mechanisms.

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One is of conditioning.

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So repeated associations of past,

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give meaning to future,

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encounters.

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So I, an example for that would be, so red is,

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is discussed often in sports, for example, or,

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or otherwise attraction.

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Um, so,

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and in research in sport, we some argue for the, red,

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superiority effect.

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The teams in red, tend to win more than others.

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Um, possibly this has been gained

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through the association in red of red and apprehension

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or, being stalled.

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So if you think about stop signs, right? They're in red.

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Um, often marking of errors

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by professors like myself, are done in red, right?

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So, this, causes a certain pause,

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and maybe avoidance.

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And if you are facing a team in red, this,

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initial, inclination may,

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be your undoing.

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So, so one again, one mechanism would be

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through associations, through conditioning of past.

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The other avenue is the evolutionary one that

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through evolution, certain, colors

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were associated with dominance,

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and that is also manifested down the road,

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maybe, possibly again in sports.

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Um, so there is research in certain birds to show

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that red, when there are different coloring offering,

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red seems to be more dominant than other, than other colors.

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Uh, there's actually experiments that show

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that if you inject with artificial color,

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red seems to, in, in, in, in matchups

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between, this type of bird, the,

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the red seems to be dominant over other colors.

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So, it's both observational and experimental.

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And those are the two proposed mechanisms that, again,

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the one of association, learned association

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and the one that is biologically rooted through evolution.

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Um, other tenets of the,

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coloring context, theory is the context.

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So context matters.

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So for example, and I think that's the, the, the,

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the best illustration, possibly

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when it's a romantic session.

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Uh, red, red signifies

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approach orientation, right?

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So, red, you know, red lipstick,

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red light district, and so on, right?

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So this association,

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however, in sports, possibly,

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it might give the opposite, right, as we discussed before,

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or one the one off, avoidance,

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this inclination to come into contact, which again,

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would be, a disadvantage, especially in sport.

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So, those are some of the, those are not all,

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but those are some of the, important assumptions

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that, this theory makes.

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And now possibly we can kind of apply them to sports.

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Um, and, I can talk about,

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three, major lines of research within sport

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with specific colors that,

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fit the theory to more than one specifically in sport.

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Uh, as I mentioned before,

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we have the red superiority effect.

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Um, we have, also the association

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between black

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and, enhanced, elevated aggression.

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And we have, wearing white as,

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disadvantage, distinctly in judo.

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But let's, let's talk. So, okay.

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So those are the three lines. Let's talk about,

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let's elaborate on each one,

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and I'll try to, plug in some research

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to make it more concrete.

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So the red superiority effect,

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pretty much was promoted by a study, that some,

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some traction in nature by hill

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and Barton from 2005.

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And they show that in the Athens Olympics,

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of 2004, in four types

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of combat sports, TaeKwonDo, boxing, wrestling,

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two types of wrestling, those competitors that were assigned

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to wear red as opposed to one, the ones

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that were wearing blue,

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won significantly more than what you'd expect if it was,

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a random assignment, 50%.

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Um, they argued that it was a natural experiment.

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So basically there is random assignment,

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but it's not for the purpose of running an experiment.

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It just happens, in real life.

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Uh, and thus, if we have random assignment, again,

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one would expect 50% winning for both, for each color,

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but the red ones prevailed significantly more.

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And they made this argument for the red superiority effect,

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again, supported possibly by either evolution,

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or biological, explanations or through association.

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Association. Um, so that was, exhibit number one.

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Uh, then, this, the red superiority effect

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was extended by atrial, et al

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two, British soccer actually.

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So, they, conducted an archival research,

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starting from 1947,

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Uh, all the way to,

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2000 and some, I'm not sure, 2008, possibly.

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So, more than 50 years of, of soccer,

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showing the, again, the red superiority effect.

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So teams that were in red were significantly more likely

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to win championships.

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They performed better than expected in their home games

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where they were wearing their red uniforms,

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but they were not outperforming when they were playing in an

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away games where they weren't, donning their red,

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color uniforms.

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Um, they showed that in derby matches.

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So derby matches are good

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because basically the two teams are in terms of,

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resources are probably similar, so

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the two Manchester teams

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and other places in, in, in Great Britain.

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Uh, so you keep the, the resources rather similar.

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And you look at uniform colors,

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and they show that, red teams on average,

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performed, better, in the League League ranking

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than the non red teams.

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So they showed quite extensively,

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the red superiority effect, again in British soccer,

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making several comparisons along the way.

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So that's the, red superiority effect.

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There are other studies, in support

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as well, but those are the two major.

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Then I think it's worth, it's worth commenting

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that the first study, the hill

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and bottom one in the, combat sports is,

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I would say is a more, restricted one,

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because those are, indeed combat sports.

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They are, they, they are one-on-one type of competitions,

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and they tend to be shorter in duration.

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Uh, the soccer one, the soccer study is making a claim

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that is much more expensive, in the sense

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that it is a team, team, team sports.

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It's, ball oriented sports.

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So, talent,

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I would say is more important.

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Teamwork is more important than the, aggressive,

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part of sports.

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Um, so again, the claim here is, is broader

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for the red superiority effect.

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So that's, that's one, that's one, avenue of research.

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The second one is of black uniforms,

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elevating aggression.

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And here there is a, a very, influential study by,

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Frank and Gilovich from 88.

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Uh, and they looked at both the,

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NFL, the National Football League

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and the National Hockey League,

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and they showed, the teams that were wearing,

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black at home tended to be more aggressive.

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So they measured aggression differently for the NFL

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and the NHL, for the NFL, for the National Football League,

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they measured how many yards they were penalized.

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So when you commit an infraction, you are,

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you are, you are taken back.

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So they measured, that was their, their,

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outcome variable.

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And in the, national Hockey League, it was about the,

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so when you commit an infraction,

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you go to the penalty box.

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They imagine how many minutes teams spent in the,

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in the players of teams spent in the penalty box.

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Um, and again, they showed along those two measures

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that teams in black were more likely to be, penalized.

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Uh, and, but they weren't actually further, they,

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they suggested three ways in which there could be an

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association between black and aggression.

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The first one is indeed wearing black causes, one

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to be more aggressive, and they argued

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for a cultural association.

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Uh, so for example, in a Western,

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you can always know who is the good guy

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and who's the bad guy, bad guy was the, the, the black hat,

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the good guy, the white hat.

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So black again, is associated.

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Um, so, that was one link.

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The second link that is always important

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to consider in sports is that it's about perception.

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So maybe wearing black doesn't cause you

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to be more aggressive, but it causes the, it, the,

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in the eyes of the referees, you are more aggressive.

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So a similar act can be judged more harshly,

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and then you are penalized.

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Um, so, for example,

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what they did brilliantly, I would say they, they

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orchestrated two plays.

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Um, so they had a, they had two, two football teams,

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two football squads.

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Uh, they ran the same play.

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Um, and in one, the team was in black,

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and the defensive team

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and the, in the other, the white team was wa the,

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the defensive team was white,

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but again, made to look exactly similar.

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And then they had, it was videotaped and referees

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and lay people watched it

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and assessed the likelihood of the,

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of the tackle That ended the play

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as an infringement, as a foul.

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Uh, and, it was shown

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that when the defensive team was in black,

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it was increased.

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They saw it as more as,

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as more an aggressive play than in white.

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So they said perception might be at play here.

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Um, in terms of the

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Real increase, they did another experiment.

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Um, but, it did not really involve,

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physical act, but, planning to, to do things.

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And it seems that when, when people,

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when participants were wearing black, they

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decided they wanted to compete against others in games

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that were decided ap priori as more violent,

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aggressive in nature as opposed

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to when they were wearing white.

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So this is more intention

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to act rather than actually, doing it.

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But they said those two, the, the perception

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and the actual increase are the likely

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culprits in this association.

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Um, there's always this, notion that it could be

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through a third variable.

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Uh, so for example, ownership, maybe they seek players

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that are especially aggressive.

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They think that that's gonna give them

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an edge on, on the field.

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And they also know that black is intimidating,

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and thus those two are not necessarily related,

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but they're going, the, the, so the, the linkage is

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through a third variable.

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That's another, that's another option.

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Um, the, the last, line of research

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is of white, according actually disadvantage.

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Uh, but this is, aside from the,

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color in context theory, the argument here is

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that if you are in white, you can be, it's a,

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it's a visibility contrast argument

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that you can be spotted earlier.

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Uh, and in judo, for example, if you,

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you can spot your, opponent's moves, early,

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it helps you in preparation.

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It, it basically gives you a significant advantage.

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Uh, I should say that this, this line

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of research has been, in my eyes,

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thoroughly debunked the research, that, shows

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otherwise is stronger, than the one,

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in support of this, of this effect.

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So, largely it's about red,

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the red superiority effect.

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So that accords, eventual,

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greater likelihood in eventually triumphing over your

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opponent and the black association with elevated aggression.

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Those are the two, main research lines in sports,

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of colors of color influence.

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So it seems like, strong

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and robust research showing the effects.

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But, upon most scrutiny,

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I actually think otherwise.

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And actually, we conducted research.

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So aside from the review,

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we actually conducted our own research

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and attempted to replicate some of those findings.

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And largely we failed to do so.

17:51.705 --> 17:54.245
So, I'll, I'll outline now our efforts

17:54.745 --> 17:57.205
and maybe, then conclude more broadly.

17:57.865 --> 18:01.565
So, with the red superiority effect, we attempted to,

18:02.345 --> 18:05.845
replicate the findings of, in,

18:06.065 --> 18:07.605
in British soccer.

18:08.705 --> 18:13.515
And, we argued, listen, the years

18:13.705 --> 18:15.715
that they have, included.

18:15.895 --> 18:20.115
So from 1947 to 2008 is indeed very impressive,

18:20.115 --> 18:22.675
and we always strive for a large sample size.

18:23.425 --> 18:27.235
However, this is not the case here

18:27.235 --> 18:30.875
because if you think about Great Britain in 1947,

18:31.735 --> 18:34.955
and, as the state of soccer, just coming out

18:34.955 --> 18:38.275
of World War ii, utterly devastated,

18:39.135 --> 18:42.155
the soccer being very, amateur, of course.

18:42.295 --> 18:47.115
And, and then you, you lump it together with the EPL,

18:47.575 --> 18:52.235
when it's the most, profitable, most,

18:52.415 --> 18:56.395
international probably league, that, that's,

18:56.395 --> 18:57.515
that's apples and oranges.

18:57.515 --> 18:59.275
That's, that's not a good comparison.

18:59.335 --> 19:00.595
That's things have changed.

19:01.455 --> 19:05.635
Um, that's not what, we should, do.

19:05.975 --> 19:10.515
So we conducted a more limited,

19:11.215 --> 19:12.795
we, we engaged a, a,

19:12.915 --> 19:16.915
a more limited sample size from 92 when the EPL was,

19:16.915 --> 19:18.635
founded until 2018.

19:19.335 --> 19:22.875
Um, and we repeated the, the analysis

19:22.935 --> 19:27.595
and basically, we, our, our, we contend

19:28.265 --> 19:30.795
that this is not red uniform effect.

19:30.795 --> 19:32.795
This is haphazardly,

19:32.795 --> 19:35.235
mostly three teams in England, right?

19:35.425 --> 19:40.035
Liverpool Master United in Arsenal, who,

19:40.215 --> 19:41.595
those teams were red

19:42.095 --> 19:44.075
and traditionally were very successful.

19:44.575 --> 19:47.035
Uh, but it's not because they were red,

19:47.035 --> 19:50.195
because there are other, there are other, factors here.

19:50.735 --> 19:54.235
Um, and the, even though that the, the,

19:54.235 --> 19:57.395
sample size seems impressive, generally,

19:57.395 --> 20:01.555
they included about 68 teams, all in all.

20:02.015 --> 20:05.635
So, the, the presence of those three teams was

20:06.265 --> 20:09.555
greatly influential and in essence, biased.

20:09.735 --> 20:14.435
The, the sample, in our, in our exploration,

20:14.615 --> 20:18.155
we did not find that the red teams performed,

20:18.155 --> 20:20.235
significantly better at home than others.

20:20.815 --> 20:24.875
Um, we extended, since we had the smaller sample size,

20:25.495 --> 20:27.875
we extended the inquiry to

20:28.415 --> 20:31.395
six other leagues competitive leagues in Europe,

20:31.515 --> 20:32.715
Portugal, Germany,

20:33.135 --> 20:36.195
or Italy, all the other best, the, the best leagues.

20:36.195 --> 20:39.355
And there's no red superiority effect in those leagues.

20:39.815 --> 20:44.475
Um, so, you know, if you have a small sample size

20:44.495 --> 20:46.475
and you have, three dominant teams,

20:47.105 --> 20:50.285
Um, it's gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna skew the results.

20:50.945 --> 20:55.525
So, we did not find support for, for, in our, in our,

20:55.825 --> 20:58.285
effort that obviously

20:58.885 --> 21:01.045
I would contend is, is the better one.

21:01.345 --> 21:02.485
Uh, others may argue.

21:03.105 --> 21:07.085
Uh, but we failed to, to find this, association.

21:07.665 --> 21:11.045
And in relationship to the black,

21:11.965 --> 21:13.245
elevated aggression Association.

21:13.305 --> 21:16.925
We also conducted, our own replication.

21:17.345 --> 21:21.125
So the original is from 1970 to 1986.

21:21.785 --> 21:25.885
Uh, and we looked at, data from,

21:26.945 --> 21:31.205
for a longer period of time, more modern up,

21:31.475 --> 21:34.685
from 99 to 2022.

21:35.425 --> 21:39.765
Um, and, we did not find the association,

21:39.775 --> 21:41.645
black teams were not.

21:41.745 --> 21:43.725
So, I, I wish I should say this.

21:44.055 --> 21:48.505
First of all, football is perceived,

21:48.865 --> 21:51.145
American football is perceived as a very violent

21:51.285 --> 21:54.825
and aggressive game, but we found that most

21:54.845 --> 21:58.105
of the infractions are actually not aggressive based.

21:58.765 --> 22:02.905
Um, so, when you look at, at infringement,

22:03.215 --> 22:05.665
they could be aggressive in nature.

22:05.965 --> 22:09.345
So roughing the pass, the passer, roughing the kicker,

22:09.495 --> 22:10.705
unnecessary roughness,

22:11.205 --> 22:15.465
but they could be also questions of, coordination.

22:15.485 --> 22:18.625
So for start, they start playing before they should.

22:19.365 --> 22:23.305
And significantly more infringements

22:23.885 --> 22:26.825
in football are non-aggressive ones.

22:26.895 --> 22:30.265
Only less than 15% are what you could argue

22:30.685 --> 22:31.705
as aggressive base.

22:32.125 --> 22:33.505
So what they did

22:33.505 --> 22:35.745
before when they looked at yards penalized

22:36.325 --> 22:37.825
was not a good measure.

22:38.885 --> 22:42.665
And when you separate the infringements

22:42.665 --> 22:45.505
that are aggressive based versus non-aggressive based,

22:45.565 --> 22:50.485
and look only at the aggressive base, there is no effect,

22:50.625 --> 22:53.845
no, no association with teams that were black.

22:54.305 --> 22:59.085
Um, we had a more, detailed,

22:59.425 --> 23:02.005
we could look at each team separately,

23:02.005 --> 23:03.845
because in the modern era,

23:04.375 --> 23:06.965
teams wear different type, different colors.

23:07.075 --> 23:09.245
They have all sets of uniforms.

23:09.625 --> 23:13.165
Um, they don't do exclusively home in a way.

23:13.505 --> 23:16.685
So we could look at the same team,

23:16.765 --> 23:20.605
wearing black versus non-black and making,

23:20.905 --> 23:24.565
and within comparison, and again, for several teams,

23:24.625 --> 23:26.005
and we did not find the effect.

23:26.985 --> 23:31.845
So, also on this count, I don't think

23:31.845 --> 23:34.645
that the effect exists based on our research.

23:35.785 --> 23:38.365
Um, I would

23:39.535 --> 23:44.185
most generally say, so, you know, in our, in our,

23:44.485 --> 23:48.405
in our review, I'm going back to our review, I should say

23:48.405 --> 23:51.285
that the research is, it, its nascent phase.

23:51.625 --> 23:55.325
We, we had 33 articles. That's not a large number.

23:55.985 --> 24:00.085
Uh, but pretty much for each study that found an effect,

24:00.385 --> 24:04.125
we could find one that would debunk the effect.

24:04.505 --> 24:08.845
So that's not, that's not a strong,

24:10.055 --> 24:12.325
stand or voice in favor of effects.

24:12.585 --> 24:15.205
You should, you should find significantly more if you,

24:15.665 --> 24:17.165
if you think that the effect is there,

24:17.225 --> 24:20.685
you should find significantly more studies in support in

24:20.685 --> 24:21.885
comparison to those who debunk,

24:22.005 --> 24:23.485
which debunk, and that's not the case.

24:24.145 --> 24:28.025
Um, I think, it's, if,

24:28.245 --> 24:31.615
if I consider more broadly,

24:32.435 --> 24:37.295
if the effect is there, it's most likely in perception

24:37.835 --> 24:42.135
rather than in true influence over,

24:44.055 --> 24:45.255
behavior or performance.

24:45.855 --> 24:47.895
'cause this requires significantly more.

24:48.595 --> 24:52.695
Um, it again requires the, the, the, the, the athletes

24:53.035 --> 24:54.415
to act differently.

24:54.525 --> 24:56.375
It's not perce perception is one.

24:56.715 --> 25:01.655
And then in turn, it also necessitates a change in behavior.

25:02.465 --> 25:06.935
While if we take the, the referees r route,

25:07.515 --> 25:09.455
it's merely perception, right?

25:09.475 --> 25:11.015
So the same, the same behavior

25:11.555 --> 25:13.895
can be judged differently based on the color.

25:14.075 --> 25:16.015
And that's, that's a kind of a lower threshold.

25:16.235 --> 25:19.015
And I think that if we ought to find an effect,

25:19.045 --> 25:22.815
it's actually through this mechanism rather than the

25:22.955 --> 25:24.295
actual change in behavior.

25:24.715 --> 25:27.975
And there is an, an interesting study here, conducted

25:27.975 --> 25:30.295
by a German group that I think is telling

25:30.435 --> 25:33.975
and, important where what they did is they, they

25:34.615 --> 25:37.575
recorded the TaeKwonDo, competition

25:38.355 --> 25:40.615
and, they flipped the color.

25:40.795 --> 25:43.815
So in one for one set of participants, so it's a,

25:43.815 --> 25:46.935
was a counterbalanced experiment for one set

25:46.935 --> 25:51.055
of participants they watch, competitor A in red

25:51.195 --> 25:53.175
and competitor B in blue.

25:53.635 --> 25:55.495
And for the other set of participants,

25:55.775 --> 25:57.375
randomly aside, it was the opposite.

25:58.195 --> 26:02.415
And across the two conditions, the red competitor,

26:02.555 --> 26:05.895
the one in red, was awarded more points,

26:06.035 --> 26:07.615
for their, performance.

26:07.955 --> 26:12.295
So that, that gives some sense that possibly,

26:12.585 --> 26:16.215
perception, referee, ref,

26:16.655 --> 26:17.975
specifically referee perception.

26:18.395 --> 26:23.015
We could see some influence of color, over performance,

26:23.185 --> 26:25.735
again, through judgment rather than

26:26.245 --> 26:28.495
real changes in behavior we need to do better.

26:28.955 --> 26:33.615
Um, as said previously with sample sizes,

26:34.195 --> 26:35.695
we need to,

26:35.845 --> 26:38.815
conduct longitudinal research in that regard.

26:39.535 --> 26:42.815
I think, experimental research that,

26:43.095 --> 26:47.935
Looks at, behavior,

26:48.515 --> 26:50.295
is strongly needed.

26:51.115 --> 26:55.445
Um, so we, we need to do better in terms

26:55.465 --> 26:59.085
of research methods, and we also need to do,

26:59.665 --> 27:03.845
better in terms of understanding the rules of competition

27:05.045 --> 27:07.745
and making sure that we get it right.

27:08.325 --> 27:12.105
Uh, so, you know, if it's a,

27:12.105 --> 27:13.465
if it's a natural experiment,

27:13.465 --> 27:15.065
indeed it is a natural experiment

27:15.065 --> 27:17.225
and there is no alternative explanations

27:17.225 --> 27:18.265
and it's not color

27:18.265 --> 27:20.425
that is actually driving the effect, but something else.

27:21.685 --> 27:23.785
So we need real expertise.

27:23.785 --> 27:26.745
And again, I would, I would, I would,

27:28.135 --> 27:32.995
my opinion is that the perception, looking at referees,

27:33.495 --> 27:36.355
utilizing referees

27:36.655 --> 27:39.515
as participants rather than lay participants,

27:39.615 --> 27:42.995
and seeing whether the effects are there,

27:43.305 --> 27:47.075
more wholesomely would be, would be, the way to go.

Quick Answers

The Impact of Color on Team Performance: An Examination of Distinction and Perception in Sports

00:00:00 - It's really important that the two teams are distinguishable, that, they know, folk from friend, that the, that the fans know, to distinguish the two that the referee obviously can distinguish. So it's clearly apparent, right? And it's, it's made as such. And, indeed it is. So it, stands to reason that we would also look for associations that, this so apparent, coloring schemes may influence performance.
00:00:48 - is informing, informing me actually otherwise. But we can start from the, assumption that there is an effect and then work our way to, possibly, whether is not one, and I think it would be worthwhile grounding the discussion in the theory of, Elliot and Mayor from 2014 of, coloring context. So it's, it's a broader theory. It's not, it's, it does not only pertain to sport, but it's a, it's a good starting point. And, it argues several things, for example,
00:01:32 - beyond, physiological properties. so they carry relevant, meanings to human beings and otherwise as well. that, they elicit, a response that at the core is either approach or avoidance oriented. and this is really, really important in sports where, if you gain, minimal advantage initially, it may make big, difference in the outcome,
00:02:14 - it argues, for example, that those, the, the way that certain colors gain meaning is through two, two distinct mechanisms. One is of conditioning. So repeated associations of past, give meaning to future, encounters. So I, an example for that would be, so red is, is discussed often in sports, for example, or, or otherwise attraction.
00:02:55 - and in research in sport, we some argue for the, red, superiority effect. The teams in red, tend to win more than others. possibly this has been gained through the association in red of red and apprehension or, being stalled. So if you think about stop signs, right? They're in red. often marking of errors by professors like myself, are done in red, right? So, this, causes a certain pause,
00:03:35 - And if you are facing a team in red, this, initial, inclination may, be your undoing. So, so one again, one mechanism would be through associations, through conditioning of past. The other avenue is the evolutionary one that through evolution, certain, colors were associated with dominance, and that is also manifested down the road, maybe, possibly again in sports. so there is research in certain birds to show

"Exploring the Psychological and Biological Significance of Color in Sports Performance"

00:04:18 - red seems to be more dominant than other, than other colors. there's actually experiments that show that if you inject with artificial color, red seems to, in, in, in, in matchups between, this type of bird, the, the red seems to be dominant over other colors. So, it's both observational and experimental. And those are the two proposed mechanisms that, again, the one of association, learned association and the one that is biologically rooted through evolution.
00:05:02 - coloring context, theory is the context. So context matters. So for example, and I think that's the, the, the, the best illustration, possibly when it's a romantic session. red, red signifies approach orientation, right? So, red, you know, red lipstick, red light district, and so on, right? So this association, however, in sports, possibly, it might give the opposite, right, as we discussed before,
00:05:45 - this inclination to come into contact, which again, would be, a disadvantage, especially in sport. So, those are some of the, those are not all, but those are some of the, important assumptions that, this theory makes. And now possibly we can kind of apply them to sports. and, I can talk about, three, major lines of research within sport with specific colors that,
00:06:27 - as I mentioned before, we have the red superiority effect. we have, also the association between black and, enhanced, elevated aggression. And we have, wearing white as, disadvantage, distinctly in judo. But let's, let's talk. So, okay. So those are the three lines. Let's talk about, let's elaborate on each one, and I'll try to, plug in some research to make it more concrete.
00:07:07 - pretty much was promoted by a study, that some, some traction in nature by hill and Barton from 2005. And they show that in the Athens Olympics, of 2004, in four types of combat sports, TaeKwonDo, boxing, wrestling, two types of wrestling, those competitors that were assigned to wear red as opposed to one, the ones that were wearing blue,
00:07:49 - a random assignment, 50%. they argued that it was a natural experiment. So basically there is random assignment, but it's not for the purpose of running an experiment. It just happens, in real life. and thus, if we have random assignment, again, one would expect 50% winning for both, for each color, but the red ones prevailed significantly more. And they made this argument for the red superiority effect, again, supported possibly by either evolution, or biological, explanations or through association.

"The Influence of Uniform Color on Performance: Evidence from British Soccer and U.S. Sports"

00:08:32 - then, this, the red superiority effect was extended by atrial, et al two, British soccer actually. So, they, conducted an archival research, starting from 1947, all the way to, 2000 and some, I'm not sure, 2008, possibly. So, more than 50 years of, of soccer,
00:09:13 - So teams that were in red were significantly more likely to win championships. They performed better than expected in their home games where they were wearing their red uniforms, but they were not outperforming when they were playing in an away games where they weren't, donning their red, color uniforms. they showed that in derby matches. So derby matches are good because basically the two teams are in terms of, resources are probably similar, so
00:09:54 - and other places in, in, in Great Britain. so you keep the, the resources rather similar. And you look at uniform colors, and they show that, red teams on average, performed, better, in the League League ranking than the non red teams. So they showed quite extensively, the red superiority effect, again in British soccer, making several comparisons along the way. So that's the, red superiority effect. There are other studies, in support as well, but those are the two major.
00:10:38 - that the first study, the hill and bottom one in the, combat sports is, I would say is a more, restricted one, because those are, indeed combat sports. They are, they, they are one-on-one type of competitions, and they tend to be shorter in duration. the soccer one, the soccer study is making a claim that is much more expensive, in the sense that it is a team, team, team sports. It's, ball oriented sports. So, talent,
00:11:17 - Teamwork is more important than the, aggressive, part of sports. so again, the claim here is, is broader for the red superiority effect. So that's, that's one, that's one, avenue of research. The second one is of black uniforms, elevating aggression. And here there is a, a very, influential study by, Frank and Gilovich from 88. and they looked at both the, NFL, the National Football League and the National Hockey League,
00:12:01 - black at home tended to be more aggressive. So they measured aggression differently for the NFL and the NHL, for the NFL, for the National Football League, they measured how many yards they were penalized. So when you commit an infraction, you are, you are, you are taken back. So they measured, that was their, their, outcome variable. And in the, national Hockey League, it was about the, so when you commit an infraction, you go to the penalty box. They imagine how many minutes teams spent in the, in the players of teams spent in the penalty box.

"Perceived Aggression: The Impact of Uniform Color on Sports Penalties and Player Behavior"

00:12:40 - that teams in black were more likely to be, penalized. and, but they weren't actually further, they, they suggested three ways in which there could be an association between black and aggression. The first one is indeed wearing black causes, one to be more aggressive, and they argued for a cultural association. so for example, in a Western, you can always know who is the good guy and who's the bad guy, bad guy was the, the, the black hat, the good guy, the white hat. So black again, is associated.
00:13:22 - The second link that is always important to consider in sports is that it's about perception. So maybe wearing black doesn't cause you to be more aggressive, but it causes the, it, the, in the eyes of the referees, you are more aggressive. So a similar act can be judged more harshly, and then you are penalized. so, for example, what they did brilliantly, I would say they, they orchestrated two plays. so they had a, they had two, two football teams,
00:14:01 - they ran the same play. and in one, the team was in black, and the defensive team and the, in the other, the white team was wa the, the defensive team was white, but again, made to look exactly similar. And then they had, it was videotaped and referees and lay people watched it and assessed the likelihood of the, of the tackle That ended the play as an infringement, as a foul. and, it was shown that when the defensive team was in black, it was increased. They saw it as more as, as more an aggressive play than in white.
00:14:46 - in terms of the Real increase, they did another experiment. but, it did not really involve, physical act, but, planning to, to do things. And it seems that when, when people, when participants were wearing black, they decided they wanted to compete against others in games that were decided ap priori as more violent, aggressive in nature as opposed to when they were wearing white. So this is more intention to act rather than actually, doing it.
00:15:29 - and the actual increase are the likely culprits in this association. there's always this, notion that it could be through a third variable. so for example, ownership, maybe they seek players that are especially aggressive. They think that that's gonna give them an edge on, on the field. And they also know that black is intimidating, and thus those two are not necessarily related, but they're going, the, the, so the, the linkage is through a third variable. That's another, that's another option. the, the last, line of research
00:16:12 - but this is, aside from the, color in context theory, the argument here is that if you are in white, you can be, it's a, it's a visibility contrast argument that you can be spotted earlier. and in judo, for example, if you, you can spot your, opponent's moves, early, it helps you in preparation. It, it basically gives you a significant advantage. I should say that this, this line

"Critical Examination of the Red Superiority Effect in Sports: A Call for Reevaluation of Color Influence Research"

00:16:51 - thoroughly debunked the research, that, shows otherwise is stronger, than the one, in support of this, of this effect. So, largely it's about red, the red superiority effect. So that accords, eventual, greater likelihood in eventually triumphing over your opponent and the black association with elevated aggression. Those are the two, main research lines in sports, of colors of color influence.
00:17:31 - and robust research showing the effects. But, upon most scrutiny, I actually think otherwise. And actually, we conducted research. So aside from the review, we actually conducted our own research and attempted to replicate some of those findings. And largely we failed to do so. So, I'll, I'll outline now our efforts and maybe, then conclude more broadly. So, with the red superiority effect, we attempted to, replicate the findings of, in, in British soccer.
00:18:13 - that they have, included. So from 1947 to 2008 is indeed very impressive, and we always strive for a large sample size. However, this is not the case here because if you think about Great Britain in 1947, and, as the state of soccer, just coming out of World War ii, utterly devastated, the soccer being very, amateur, of course. And, and then you, you lump it together with the EPL, when it's the most, profitable, most,
00:18:56 - that's apples and oranges. That's, that's not a good comparison. That's things have changed. that's not what, we should, do. So we conducted a more limited, we, we engaged a, a, a more limited sample size from 92 when the EPL was, founded until 2018. and we repeated the, the analysis and basically, we, our, our, we contend that this is not red uniform effect. This is haphazardly,
00:19:35 - Liverpool Master United in Arsenal, who, those teams were red and traditionally were very successful. but it's not because they were red, because there are other, there are other, factors here. and the, even though that the, the, sample size seems impressive, generally, they included about 68 teams, all in all. So, the, the presence of those three teams was greatly influential and in essence, biased. The, the sample, in our, in our exploration,
00:20:18 - significantly better at home than others. we extended, since we had the smaller sample size, we extended the inquiry to six other leagues competitive leagues in Europe, Portugal, Germany, or Italy, all the other best, the, the best leagues. And there's no red superiority effect in those leagues. so, you know, if you have a small sample size and you have, three dominant teams, it's gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna skew the results. So, we did not find support for, for, in our, in our,

"Questioning the Association Between Uniform Color and Perceived Aggression in Sports Performance"

00:20:58 - I would contend is, is the better one. others may argue. but we failed to, to find this, association. And in relationship to the black, elevated aggression Association. We also conducted, our own replication. So the original is from 1970 to 1986. and we looked at, data from, for a longer period of time, more modern up, from 99 to 2022. and, we did not find the association,
00:21:41 - So, I, I wish I should say this. First of all, football is perceived, American football is perceived as a very violent and aggressive game, but we found that most of the infractions are actually not aggressive based. so, when you look at, at infringement, they could be aggressive in nature. So roughing the pass, the passer, roughing the kicker, unnecessary roughness, but they could be also questions of, coordination. So for start, they start playing before they should. And significantly more infringements
00:22:26 - Only less than 15% are what you could argue as aggressive base. So what they did before when they looked at yards penalized was not a good measure. And when you separate the infringements that are aggressive based versus non-aggressive based, and look only at the aggressive base, there is no effect, no, no association with teams that were black. we had a more, detailed, we could look at each team separately, because in the modern era,
00:23:07 - They have all sets of uniforms. they don't do exclusively home in a way. So we could look at the same team, wearing black versus non-black and making, and within comparison, and again, for several teams, and we did not find the effect. So, also on this count, I don't think that the effect exists based on our research. I would most generally say, so, you know, in our, in our,
00:23:48 - that the research is, it, its nascent phase. We, we had 33 articles. That's not a large number. but pretty much for each study that found an effect, we could find one that would debunk the effect. So that's not, that's not a strong, stand or voice in favor of effects. You should, you should find significantly more if you, if you think that the effect is there, you should find significantly more studies in support in comparison to those who debunk, which debunk, and that's not the case. I think, it's, if,
00:24:32 - if the effect is there, it's most likely in perception rather than in true influence over, behavior or performance. 'cause this requires significantly more. it again requires the, the, the, the, the athletes to act differently. It's not perce perception is one. And then in turn, it also necessitates a change in behavior. While if we take the, the referees r route, it's merely perception, right?

"Color Perception and Its Influence on Judging Performance in Sports: The Case for Enhanced Research Methods"

00:25:11 - can be judged differently based on the color. And that's, that's a kind of a lower threshold. And I think that if we ought to find an effect, it's actually through this mechanism rather than the actual change in behavior. And there is an, an interesting study here, conducted by a German group that I think is telling and, important where what they did is they, they recorded the TaeKwonDo, competition and, they flipped the color. So in one for one set of participants, so it's a, was a counterbalanced experiment for one set of participants they watch, competitor A in red
00:25:53 - And for the other set of participants, randomly aside, it was the opposite. And across the two conditions, the red competitor, the one in red, was awarded more points, for their, performance. So that, that gives some sense that possibly, perception, referee, ref, specifically referee perception. We could see some influence of color, over performance, again, through judgment rather than real changes in behavior we need to do better. as said previously with sample sizes,
00:26:35 - conduct longitudinal research in that regard. I think, experimental research that, Looks at, behavior, is strongly needed. so we, we need to do better in terms of research methods, and we also need to do, better in terms of understanding the rules of competition and making sure that we get it right. so, you know, if it's a, if it's a natural experiment, indeed it is a natural experiment
00:27:43 - and it's not color that is actually driving the effect, but something else. So we need real expertise. And again, I would, I would, I would, my opinion is that the perception, looking at referees, utilizing referees as participants rather than lay participants, and seeing whether the effects are there, more wholesomely would be, would be, the way to go.

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