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Durham University
Anthropology
Evolutionary Anthropology
Department
of Anthropology
Durham University
Dawson Building
South Road
Durham DH1 3LE
UK
Tel:
+44 (0) 191 334 1601
Fax: +44 (0) 191 334 1614
r.a.hill@durham.ac.uk
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"Our game against Anderlecht
at Anfield was a night of milestones. We wore the all red strip
for the first time. Christ, the
players looked like giants. And we played like giants."
Bill
Shankly (1964) Manger,
Liverpool F.C.
Darwin
(1876) first noticed that primate males use colouration for attracting
females and displaying dominance and subsequent studies have provided
support for the significance of red. The intensity of red colouration
in rhesus macaques and mandrills offers cues to male quality and
status, but it is in male-male competition that the role of red
is most pronounced. In mandrills, male red colouration on rump,
face and genitalia depends on their testosterone-levels and male
mandrills assess a rival's fighting ability and dominance rank based
on their brightness of the rival's red colouration. In essense,
the red colouration is a badge of status in primates, and in fact
red colouration is associated with dominance and aggression in a
wide range of taxa.
In
humans, skin redness is not such a pronounced signal, but males
tend to be redder than females and facial redness does correlate
with testosterone levels and so may indicate high status and thus
dominance. Redness due to oxygenated (redder) blood is a signal
of increased aerobic fitness and humans interpret skin blood colouration
as an honest cue to underlying health and a "ruddy" face
is often associated with healthiness. Red skin colouration is also
associated with anger and dominance.
For both humans and non-human species, therefore, there is evidence
that red colouration signals both biological traits (health, testosterone
and dominance) and emotional states (anger/arousal). It is also
known that in animals, artificial colours can exploit innate responses
to natural stimuli. We thus hypothesised that a similar response
could exist in humans with artificial clothing colour exploiting
the evolutionary associations between red and diminance. Human sporting
competition provides the perfect test arena for this idea.
Our
first evidence that colour might influence the outcome of sporting
events was based on an analysis of four combat sports (boxing, taekwondo,
freestyle wrestling and Graeco-Roman wrestling) at the 2004 Olympic
Games in Athens, Greece (Hill and Barton, 2005). During this competition,
red or blue uniforms were randomly assigned to competitors, providing
a natural experiment. If colour had no effect on outcomes, an equal
number of red and blue winners would be anticipated. Instead, Hill
and Barton (2005) found that wearing red was associated with a significantly
increased probability of winning with 55% of all bouts won by competitors
in red (see below). Wearing red appeared to tip the balance between
winning and losing in close contests; when competitors were closely
matched over 60% of bouts had red winners, but in more asymmetric
encounters (often knowckous) the colours were evenly matched. Interestingly,
no such winning bias due to colour effects has been found in studies
of judo contests where opponents are dressed in either blue or white.
This suggests that while factors such as skill and ability will
inevitably have the greatest say in determining sporting outcomes,
the subtle effects of red colouration may decide contests where
competitors are evenly matched.
Recently,
a series of studies have provided support for the role of colour
in determining sporting outcomes. A review of English football found
an association between teams wearing red shirts and long-term success
(Attrill et al. 2008). Since the Second World War, red teams have
provided more champions and averaged higher finishing league positions
than teams in other colours. Most significantly, within cities with
more than one team, red teams have significantly outperformed their
non-red neighbours over the 55 year period (see below). On a smaller
scale, teams at the Euro 2004 appeared to have significantly better
results when they were playing in their red shirts (see below).
More recently, other researchers have found that penalty takers
were the least successful when facing a goalkeeper wearing red,
and penalty takers in red shirts are perceived to possess character
traits such as confidence, assertiveness and composure to a greater
extent than those in white shirts. Shirt colours also appear to
influence the perceptions of referees (see video
clip), and there is a growing body of evidence that "seeing
red" is a particular distractor for men in competitive situations.
Collectively these results suggest that the colour red may play
a significant role in deciding sporting contests, although these
relationships may be confined to male competitors. Nevertheless,
one repercussion of these findings is that colour represents a significant
obstacle to ensuring a level playing field in sport and suggests
that governing bodies should play close attention to the colour
of sporting attire.
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Influence
of colour of sporting attire on the outcome of competitive sports.
(a) Proportion of contests in Olympic combat sports won by competitors
wearing red or blue outfits for all sports combined and for
the individual sports of boxing (Box), tae kwon do (TKD), Greco-Roman
wrestling (GR W) and freestyle wrestling (Free W). (b)
Proportion of contests won by competitors wearing red or blue
given different degrees of relative ability (asymmetry) in the
two competitors in each bout. Black lines at 0.5 indicate the
expected proportion of wins by red or blue under the null hypothesis
that colour has no effect on contest outcomes. (Hill &
Barton, 2005)
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The
difference in performance between teams from the same city where
one of these teams wears red shirts as their home colour. The
results are presented as tthe red team's average positionminus
the average position of the other team within the city. Positive
values show a higher average position for the red team. (Attrill
et al., 2008) |
Performance
of football teams at Euro 2004 when playing in red and their other
shirt colour, controlling for opposition quality (difference in
FIFA world ranking in June 2004). (Hill & Barton, 2005) |
Recently
we took part in a BBC Horizon programme exploring the importance and
significance of colour. The programme explores some of our earlier
research, starting with our original paper based on the Athens Olympics,
and the footage includes some sequences with the Durham
University Tae Kwon-Do Club. Since our original research there
has been a growing body of evidence to show the significance of red
on the perceivers (opponents, refererees and experimental subjects!)
but the effect of wearing red on the wearer has remained comparatively
unexplored. Nevertheless, we had hypothesised that impact of colour
might operate through hormonal influences such that wearing red may,
for example, elevate testosterone levels. In collaboration with Dr
Iain Greenless (University of Chichester), Horizon gave us the
opportunity to conduct a pilot study based on a penalty-taking competition,
building on Iain's earlier work in this area. At the same time we
were able to collect and analyse the hormonal profiles of the participants
in collaboration with the Durham
Endocrinology & Ecology Laboratory. We are only now starting
to analyse the hormonal data properly, but there is a tentative suggestion
(nothing more than that, despite what the programme may suggest!!)
that wearing red does have an influence on hormonal profiles (potentially
cortsiol). Once we have the full results properly analysed we hope
to have a manscipt submitted and available from here very soon!
Wiedemann,
D., Burt, D.M. Hill, R.A. & Barton, R.A. (2015) Red clothing increases perceived dominance, aggression and anger. Biology Letters. 11:20150166 (pdf)
Wiedemann,
D., Barton, R.A. & Hill, R.A. (2012) Evolutionary
approaches to sport. In: Roberts, S.C. (ed.) Applied Evolutionary
Psychology. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Attrill,
M.J., Gresty, K.A., Hill, R.A. & Barton, R.A.
(2008) Red shirt colour is associated with long-term team
success in English football. Journal of Sports Science,
26: 577-582 (pdf)
Little,
A.C & Hill, R.A. (2007) Attribution to red suggests
special role in dominance signalling. Journal of
Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology, 5: 8794
(pdf)
Barton, R.A. & Hill, R.A. (2005) Sporting contests:
Seeing red? Putting sportswear in context (reply). Nature,
437: E10-E11 (pdf)
Hill, R.A. & Barton, R.A. (2005) Red enhances human
performance in contests. Nature 435: 293 (pdf)
Supplementary methods (pdf);
supplementary analyses (pdf);
supplementary data (xls)
Dr
Russell Hill - Durham University (email)
Professor Rob Barton - Durham University (link)
(email)
Diana Wiedemann - Durham University (link)
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