Seeing red? Putting sportswear in context (original) (raw)

Sporting contests

Nature volume 437, page E10 (2005) Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 10 May 2006

Abstract

Arising from: R. A. Hill & R. A. Barton Nature 435, 293 (200510.1038/435293a); R. A. Hill & R. A. Barton reply

There is a Corrigendum (11 May 2006) associated with this document.

The shirt colour worn by sportsmen can affect the behaviour of the competitors1,2, but Hill and Barton3 show that it may also influence the outcome of contests. By analysing the results of men's combat sports from the Athens 2004 Olympics, they found that more matches were won by fighters wearing red outfits than by those wearing blue; they suggest that red might confer success because it is a sign of dominance in many animal species and could signal aggression in human contests. Here we use another data set from the 2004 Olympics to show that similar winning biases occur in contests in which neither contestant wears red, indicating that a different mechanism may be responsible for these effects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biology & Psychology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK
    Candy Rowe
  2. School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Mary's College, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK
    Julie M. Harris
  3. Evolutionary Psychology & Behavioural Ecology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZB, UK
    S. Craig Roberts

Authors

  1. Candy Rowe
  2. Julie M. Harris
  3. S. Craig Roberts

Corresponding author

Correspondence toCandy Rowe.

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Rowe, C., Harris, J. & Roberts, S. Seeing red? Putting sportswear in context.Nature 437, E10 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04306

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