The red mist? Red shirts, success and team sports

Abstract

Baron von Richthofen (the Red Baron) arguably the most famous fighter pilot of all time painted his plane the vividest of red hues, making it visible and identifiable at great distance, showing an aggressive pronouncement of dominance to other pilots. Can colour affect aggression and performance and if so is it observable within team sports? This study explores the effect of red on sporting performances within a team sports arena, through empirical analysis of match results from the Australian Rugby League spanning a period of 30 years. Both the descriptive analysis and the multivariate analysis report a positive relationship. Nevertheless, more evidence is required to better understand whether teams in red do enjoy greater success controlling explicitly in a multivariate analysis for many factors that simultaneously affect performance.

Notes

¹ Humphrey, ‘The Colour Currency of Nature’, 95–8.

² Anger has physical effects including raising the heart rate and blood pressure, often giving the face a red or ruddy complexion.

³ See Alonso' two papers, ‘Territoriality among African-American street gangs in Los Angeles’; ‘Racialized Identities and the Formation of Black Gangs in Los Angeles’.

⁴ Tinbergen, ‘“Derived” Activities’, 1–32.

⁵ For an overview see Pryke, ‘Is Red an Innate or Learned Signal of Aggression and Intimidation’?

⁶ Miller, ‘Pattern and Process in Competition’.

⁷ Fehrman and Fehrman, Color: The Secret Influence, 182.

⁸ See Garbini, ‘Evoluzione del Senso cromatico nella Infanzia’.

⁹ See Ellis, ‘The Psychology of Red’, 365–375.

¹⁰ Fehrman and Fehrman, Color: The Secret Influence, 196.

¹¹ See Ellis, ‘The Psychology of Red’.

¹² Elliot and Niesta, ‘Romantic Red: Red Enhances Men's Attraction to Women’.

¹³ Singh, ‘Impact of Color on Marketing’, 785–6.

¹⁴ See also Pierce and Weinland, ‘The Effect of Color on Workmen’; Pressey, ‘The Influence of Color Upon Mental and Motor Efficiency’; Singer, Brush, and Lublin, ‘Some Aspects of Deindividuation’.

¹⁵ See Pierce, ‘Aesthetics of Single Forms’.

¹⁶ See Quantz, ‘The Influence of the Colour of Surfaces on our Estimation of Their Magnitude’; Larguier des Bancels, ‘De l'estimation des surfaces colorées’.

¹⁷ Pierce and Weinland, ‘The Effect of Color on Workmen’.

¹⁸ See Fé ré, ‘Note sur les conditions physiologiques des emotions and Sensations and Movement’.

¹⁹ Rehm, Steinleitner, and Lilli, ‘Wearing Uniforms and Agression’.

²⁰ Singer, Brush, and Lublin, ‘Some Aspects of Deindividuation’.

²¹ See Pryke, ‘Is Red an Innate or Learned Signal of Aggression and Intimidation’?

²² Hill and Barton, ‘Red Enhances Human Performance in Contents’.

²³ Hageman, Strauss, and Leißing, ‘When the Referee Sees Red’.

²⁴ Rowe, Harris, and Roberts, ‘Seeing Red? Putting Sportswear in Context’.

²⁵ Dijkstra and Preenen, ‘No Effect of Blue on Winning Contests in Judo’; Rowe, Harris, and Roberts, Seeing Red? Putting Sportswear in Context'.

²⁶ Sutter and Kocher, ‘Shirt Color and Team Performance in Football’, 125–30.

²⁷ Sutter and Kocher, ‘Shirt Color and Team Performance in Football’, 125–30.

²⁸ Attrill et al., ‘Red Shirt Colour is Associated With Long-Term Team Success in English Football’.

²⁹ Ilie et al., ‘Better to Be Red Than Blue in Virtual Competition’.

³⁰ See Ioan et al., ‘Red is a Distractor for Men in Competition’.

³¹ Elliot et al., ‘Color and Psychological Functioning’.

³² Elliot et al., ‘Color and Psychological Functioning’.

³³ Allison, ‘Multiple Regression’, 20.

³⁴ Goff and Tollison, Sportometrics, 6–7.

³⁵ Levitt and List, ‘Field Experiments in Economics: The Past, The Present and The Future’.

³⁶ Out of the 5604 matches, we have 2 where official crowd numbers were not available.

³⁷ Eastern and Western Sydney were some of the first teams (1983) to introduce an alternative strip in the early part of the season to combat the heat, as both sides were predominately dark coloured (Blue and Black). However, it was not until the mid 1990s with the massive expansion of teams and colours that alternate strips became commonplace.

³⁸ A deeper analysis would require looking at the video footage of all the 5604 games.

³⁹ In 1997, a 10-team breakaway competition known as the Super League was formed in the on-going war for control of the sport. After one season, the warring parties negotiated the reformation of a single competition.

⁴⁰ Guedes and Machado, ‘Changing Rewards in Contests: Has the Three-Point Rule Brought More Offense to Soccer?’, 622–4.

⁴¹ Fehrman and Fehrman, Color: The Secret Influence, Figure C-8.

⁴² For example, teams such as Brisbane Broncos and the North Sydney Bears are all deemed to be red. For a full list, see Appendix Table A1. As a further robustness measure, Table A2 compares the team colours listed in the Pantone PMS colour system with the RGB and the CMYK colour systems.

⁴³ For an overview, see Greer, ‘Spectator Booing and the Home Advantage’; Nevill, Balmer, and Williams, ‘The Influence of Crowd Noise and Experience upon Refereeing Decisions in Football’; Pollard, ‘Home Advantage in Soccer: A Retrospective Analysis’; Schwartz and Barsky, ‘The Home Advantage’.

⁴⁴ Wooldridge, Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data.

⁴⁵ The dummy assignation for ‘some’ relates to teams strips that contain some red but less than the 50% required to be the Major team colour. Teams such as the St. George Dragons have major colour assigned as white but with a secondary colour red. While this amount of red does not qualify as MAJOR_RED, but it is picked up in this variable.

⁴⁶ For the start of the 1983 season the ARL made major changes to the structure of the game including a ball handover after the sixth tackle and a change of points awarded for successfully crossing the oppositions goal line (try). The points awarded were increased from three points to four points, thus increasing the value of this form of points scoring.

⁴⁷ The colours of the jerseys worn by competing teams shall be easily distinguishable and, if, in the opinion of the referee similarity between the jerseys might affect the proper conduct of the game he may, at his discretion, order either team to change jerseys in accordance with the rules governing the competition in which the game is played (The Australian Rugby League, ‘The Australian Rugby League Laws of the Game and Notes on the Laws’).

⁴⁸ Attrill et al., ‘Red Shirt Colour is Associated With Long-Term Team Success in English Football’.

⁴⁹ The Australian Rugby League, ‘The Australian Rugby League Laws of the Game and Notes on the Laws’.

⁵⁰ Little and Hill, ‘Attribution to Red Suggests Special Role in Dominance Signalling’, 166.

⁵¹ See Ioan et al., ‘Red is a Distractor for Men in Competition’, 290–1.

⁵² Sutter and Kocher, ‘Shirt Color and Team Performance in Football’, 129.