Wear red to win: psychologists

AFP, August, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — If three German psychologists have it right, the crimson-clad Chinese team has all the advantage in the Olympics: they found that sports referees have a distinct bias for competitors in red uniforms.

In research on referees of tae kwon do matches, Norbert Hagemann, Bernd Strauss and Jan Leibing of the University of Munster found evidence that the color of a uniform can affect the split-second decisions a referee has to make, and lead to possible bias in scoring.

The three tested referees on videos of tae kwon do matches which pitted one competitor in red against another in blue.

For 42 matches the referees assigned points to the competitors.

And then the psychologists showed the referees a second set of matches -- in fact the same...