 Refs just can't say no to red. Pic: Mario Castillo
August 12, 2008 7:16 PM
Refs see red before ruling
BEIJING - Red might be more than just a lucky color for Chinese athletes competing at the Olympics.
A study has found choosing the color red for a uniform in competitive sports can affect the referee's split-second decision-making ability and even promote a scoring bias.
Red is thought to bring good luck for Chinese and is the color of items ranging from packets of lucky money handed out at Lunar New Year to lanterns and wedding dresses.
And Tiger Woods famously wears red on the last day of a golf tournament for luck.
Now psychologists Norbert Hagemann, Bernd Strauss and Jan
Leissing from Germany's University of Muenster have found
referees tended to assign more points to taekwondo competitors
dressed in red than those dressed in blue.
The study, published in the August issue of Psychological
Science, was conducted by the researchers presenting 42
taekwondo referees with videos of blue- and red-clad
competitors sparring.
The two sets of clips were identical except that the colors
were reversed in the second set so the red athlete appeared to
be wearing blue and vice versa.
After each video the referees were asked to score the
performance of each competitor, red or blue.
The psychologists said competitors wearing red were awarded
an average of 13 percent more points and the points seemed to
increase after the blue athlete was digitally transformed into
a red athlete and decrease when the red competitor turned blue.
"Referees' decisions will 'tip the scales' when athletes
are relatively well-matched but have relatively small influence
when one is clearly superior," the researchers said in a
statement.
"Although there is a need for further research, including
research on the effects of different colors, our results
suggest a need to change the rules or support referees by
providing electronic decision-making aids in those sports in
which this color bias may be a problem."
(Reuters Life!)
|
