The following article describes a recent study about the effect of the color red on the outcome of sporting events. Read the text and answer the questions below.
When opponents in a game are equally matched, the team wearing red is more likely to win, according to a new study. British scientists Russell Hill and Robert Barton of the University of Durham reached that conclusion by studying the outcomes of one-on-one boxing, tae kwon do, and wrestling matches at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
In each event, the competitors had been randomly assigned red or blue outfits by Olympics staff. When one competitor won by a large margin, presumably because he was far superior to his opponent, the color of his clothing did not affect the result. "But when the match was very close,” Barton said, “wearing red was consistently associated with a higher probability of winning."
Hill and Barton found similar results in a review of the colors worn at the Euro 2004 international football tournament. Their report will be published in tomorrow's issue of the journal Nature.
Hill and Barton got the idea for their study from learning about other animals, where red is often a sign for male dominance and high testosterone levels. Joanna Setchell, a primate researcher at the University of Cambridge, has shown that red coloration of the face and body gives male monkeys an advantage when it comes to mating. Another study by other scientists has shown that when red plastic rings are experimentally placed on the legs of male birds, the birds become more dominant.
Hill and Barton speculated that there might be a similar effect in humans, and if there is, that it could be apparent in sporting contests.