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In Sports, The Man in Red Gets Ahead

Sep 1, 2009, 9:02 PM UTC

It’s the reason you choose Ken over Ryu in Street Fighter II. No, not because of Ken’s nice flaming uppercut. It was all in the red gi (so imposing! so masculine!), and now science has your back.â†µâ†µGerman psychologists have found that teams wearing red uniforms score 10 percent more than those wearing any other color. Because red equals AGGRESSION, DOMINANCE, BLOOD, DEVASTATION and CRUSHKILLDESTROY.â†µ

â†µâ†µSo everybody, let’s be like the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Washington Capitals and switch our colors to red. Let’s embrace the Houston Texans’ strategy and impose our will with all-red alternate jerseys. â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥The study, by German sports psychologists at the University of Munster, was reported in New Scientist magazine. They showed video clips of taekwondo bouts to 42 experienced referees. One combatant wore blue, the other red.â†µâ‡¥
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â†µâ‡¥They then showed them the same clips but digitally manipulated the clothing to swap the colours. The fighters wearing red were given an average of 13 per cent more points than when they were blue.â†µâ‡¥
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â†µâ‡¥“If one competitor is strong and the other weak, it won’t change the outcome of the fight,” said Norbert Hagemann, who led the study. “But the closer the levels, the easier it is for the colour to tip the scale.”â†µâ†µâ†µWell, that’s all well and good for studying one-on-one fights, but what of team sports, where all-out aggression may not be exactly what’s in order for your team’s success? I question your methodology, German psychologists. Unless you’re wearing red, in which case AH! I SURRENDER!â†µ

â†µâ†µ(H/T to Asylum)â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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