Color Red Experiment

Numerous studies have been conducted to describe how color can affect human behavior. Having been examined with particular depth, the color red has been linked to attraction (Elliot & Niesta, 2008), avoidance (Elliot, Maier, Binser, Friedman, & Pekrun, 2009), and other behaviors in humans. It has also been found that, in combat sports, wearing red is positively linked to success over one’s opponent (Hill and Barton, 2005); however, it was not made clear if physical ability or some other factor contributed to the greater probability of winning in a fight. Dreiskaemper, Strauss, Hagemann, and Büsch (2013) sought to prove that wearing red in a combat sport produces specific positive effects on one’s physical capabilities, and this was determined

by measuring strength and heart rate.
An experiment was conducted that measured the direct effects of wearing red on athletes’ physical capabilities when compared to wearing other colors.

As with any experimental model, this study included an independent variable, a dependent variable, and control measures. An independent variable is a condition that is manipulated in an experiment in order to produce a direct effect on something or on a living participant. A dependent variable is the effect produced due to manipulation of the independent variable, and it is measured to determine if a causal relationship exists in nature between these variables. In this experiment, the independent variable was the color uniform the athletes wore. The dependent variable was physical capability, and this was measured in several distinct ways. The strength was examined before the fight, and the heart rate was measured before, during, and after competing in the combat sport. As a control measure, the strength and heart rate before the fights were not only measured when participants wore red and blue, but also when they were wearing their regular training clothes to assess how, or if, their physical capabilities had changed due to the color of the outfit. Finally, the points earned in the contest were measured to assess performance effects, and self-reported physical strain was measured to assess jersey color effects on subjective physical

strength.
There were 28 randomly selected participants drawn from members of four German handball teams. The participants were an average age of 27.7, an average weight of 85.6 kg, and an average height of 186 cm, and none of them had combat sport experience aside from three of them briefly participating in a judo club. These participants were paired by size with one being dressed in red uniforms and the other in blue uniforms, both which consisted of a head protector, a trunk protector, and gloves.
The participants participated in their regular handball training session while each pair would be taken out for “training” in the combat sport twice for 12 minutes at a time with a 40-minute interval in between, and one trial was done with each player having one of the colors color chosen randomly for them and the second was done with assigning them the other color.

The participants had first been given a heart-monitoring watch, the Polar Electro RS 100 watches, and had their heart rates recorded in their regular clothes. Strength was measured, while participants were in regular clothes, using a leg dynamometer called the Takei A5402, which measured the maximum force exerted while each participant pulled up a 40-cm iron chain. These measurements were taken again after each member in a pair was assigned a color, and then the fight rules were explained: each member was to hit the other in the chest as many times as possible while avoiding being hit using giant American-Gladiator-style “smash sticks” in a three-meter by three-meter fighting area. The 30-second fight was recorded and presented in black-and-white to independent judges who could judge the success of each of the fighters and assign points based off the number of hits they got on their opponents. The pulse-watches recorded the heart rates immediately after the fight and then two minutes after when the participants had completed a questionnaire. This questionnaire included the Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale, with

which participants reported subjective physical strain.
The results of the experiment confirmed that wearing the color red does seem to influence one’s physical capabilities. It was found that performance, however, as measured by the number of hits each member of each pair got on the other, was not influenced by their uniform colors. Nevertheless, wearing red increased the average heart rate significantly during the 30-second combat, though not before or after; additionally, wearing red increased the strength significantly before the fight when compared to wearing blue or the control condition of wearing regular clothing. Participants did not report with the RPE scale any difference in perceived strain. The researchers concluded that jersey color indeed enhances physical parameters, but they could not determine whether it benefits overall performance due to the results showing virtually no difference in rates of success based on color.