Aug 28th 2009 By Jeremy Taylor
In athletic competition, the side that has red as part of its uniform scores 10 percent more than teams that don't.German psychologists showed clips of Taekwondo bouts between a fighter in red and one in blue to 42 experienced referees. They then showed the clips again, digitally flipping the colors of the combatants' uniforms. In each case, red wearing fighters were more likely to win.
This adds to a straight-up analysis of results that found competitors in red prevail more often. "There is now good experimental evidence that red stimuli are perceived as dominant and that they cause negative effects on performance in those viewing them," concluded the researchers.
This may be yet another explanation for the continued frustrations of the hapless orange-and-blue New York Mets.
