Tiger Woods wears it. So do Ferraris, the world champion Boston Red Sox, and English soccer giants Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. Now scientists say it's no coincidence that winners frequently sport red.
In the first serious study of how colour influences competitive performance, researchers analysed the results of four 2004 Olympic events and found that athletes who wore red frequently triumphed over opponents sporting other hues.
There was one catch: red only seemed to work in contests between closely matched opponents. "If you're hopeless, wearing red is not going to make you a winner," says Robert Barton, an anthropologist at the University of Durham and co-author of the study in today's edition of the journal Nature.
What makes the findings so intriguing, scientists say, is that they appear to draw a direct link between observations of animal behaviour in the field and human behaviour on the playing field.
For example, among mandrills, colourful primates found in the rainforests of western Africa, the most aggressive males typically have the reddest face, genitals and rump. Researchers also found that the redder an animal is, the higher its levels of testosterone.
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Some athletes may have subconsciously learned the red lesson. Tiger Woods, for example, traditionally dons a red polo on Sundays, the final day of most tournaments. "We've showed him other colours," says David Hagler, global director of apparel for Nike Golf. "But if it doesn't fit in the red zone, he says, 'Uh-uh.' "
For their study, Barton and colleague Russell Hill analysed the results of four one-on-one events in the 2004 Athens Olympics - boxing, taekwondo, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling.
In each event, combatants are randomly assigned either red or blue jerseys or protective gear. If colour has no effect, the scientists reasoned, the outcomes of the matches should be statistically indistinguishable. But when they excluded forfeits and lopsided matches, scientists found that 16 of 21 rounds in each competition produced more red winners.
The effect may also hold true in team play. In an analysis of results from the Euro 2004 soccer tournament, the researchers found teams scored more goals and racked up more wins when they wore predominantly red jerseys.
Scientists don't know exactly what's going on. Red might boost athletes' testosterone levels or even trip some primordial fear circuit in competitors. Scientists at the University of Bristol, for example, recently showed that mice fear the colour and avoid red cages.
Tiger Woods winning in red.
Not everybody buys into the red scare. US Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner, who wore blue when he lost his semi-final in Athens, says it had "zero" influence. "It doesn't matter what colour you are," he said. "Everybody can make an excuse about why they didn't win. I just lost."
For the record, Arsenal will wear red in tomorrow night's FA Cup final, leaving Manchester United to wear black, while Liverpool will wear its red shirt in the Champions League final on Thursday morning. AC Milan will wear white.
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