The Winning Color Of Red
Power of Red
Linda Paige
Created: 5/19/2005 4:53:26 PM
Updated: 5/19/2005 5:26:48 PM
Is your child's little league team on a losing streak?
Well, rather than making everyone practice harder, you might want to change the color of their uniforms.
A new study out shows that athletes who wear red win more often and the power of red is displayed throughout the animal kingdom.
For the male House Finch, the Stickleback Fish or the Mandrill Monkey, red is in this and every season.
Naturalists have long believed crimson serves as a color-coded come-on to females, while scaring off rival males.
But does it work for two-legged tigers as well?
For the first time, we have a study of color's impact on human competition.
British scientists studied four Olympic events and found that if all other factors remain equal, the man in red has the edge.
Dr. Robert Barton from the University of Durham explains, "we looked at Olympic contact sports, one was boxing, there was tae kwon do, and two types of wrestling. In each of those four sports there was an advantage to the contestant wearing red over a contestant wearing blue."
The findings held for team sports as well.
What is it about red? Our reaction seems hard-wired.
Even if you don't speak the language, you know the color of danger around the world.
A red car is considered more likely to be driven recklessly and comes with higher insurance premiums.
Fewer teachers are grading papers in harsh red ink these days, fearing it intimidates young minds.
But in some corners of society's jungle, a confident, aggressive message is exactly the order of the day.
We've always known that men pull out the red ties to show their power and now we have the scientific proof.
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