Piotr Sorokowski * Andrzej Szmajke ** Takeshi Hamamura *** Feng Jiang **** Agnieszka Sorokowska ***** Other Papers Polish Psychological Bulletin 2014, vol 45(3), 318-325 DOI - 10.2478/ppb-2014-0039 Introduction Psychology has long been interested in the influence of color on human functioning; however, until recently only few research achievements have been realized on this topic. Studies regarding the color red are a good example. For many years it has been suggested that red symbolizes fire, energy, passion, and love, while at the same time it is a metaphor for war, rage, and anger (Mahnke, 1996). In this context, one would assume that the color red raises an individual’s level of excitement (Mahnke, 1996). However, a majority of experimental studies have not confirmed such a hypothesis (e.g., Ainsworth, Simpson, & Cassell, 1993; Hackney, 2006; Hatta, Yoshida, Kawakami, & Okamoto, 2002). For this reason, recent research showing that the color red influences human motivational processes (Elliot, Maier, Moller, Friedman, & Meinhardt, 2007; Lichtenfeld, Maier, Elliot, & Pekrun, 2009; Mehta & Zhu, 2009) or perceived physical attractiveness (Elliot et al., 2010; Elliot & Niesta, 2008; Roberts, Owen, & Havlicek, 2010) is of particular interest. One of the general research trends in modern color psychology is sport psychology (see Sorokowski & Szmajke, 2011). Many teams create their image with a reference to color. For example, Belgium’s national football team wears red uniforms and their team nickname is the “Red Devils.” Similarly, the team with the most dangerous look of our times – New Zealand’s national rugby team (which performs a “ritual dance” before each match in order to scare their opponents) – is known as the “All Blacks.” Thus, it is not surprising that scientists are interested in the influence of colors on sports performance. Among the first experimental studies regarding the influence of color on human performance was one “Red wins”, “black wins” and “blue loses” effects are in the eye of beholder, but they are culturally universal: A cross-cultural analysis of the inluence of outit colours on sports performance. Abstract: Although many studies have demonstrated an influence of uniform colors on sports performance, there are still more questions than answers regarding this issue. In our study, participants from Poland (N = 147) and China (N = 143) watched a two-minute video of a semi-professional boxing match. The participants viewed six different versions of the same fight – the original was modified to change the colors of the boxers’ trunks (red vs. blue, blue vs. red, blue vs. black, black vs. blue, red vs. black, and black vs. red). We experimentally confirmed that “black wins” and “red wins” effects exist, but in a way that caused an erroneous perception of the number of blows landed by boxers wearing red and black trunks fighting against boxers in blue trunks. We also showed that both effects are similarly strong even in Chinese culture, where the color red has different connotations from those in Western cultures. Additionally, our results suggest that context might play a very important role in the assessments of the boxers – color only influenced the perception of the weaker boxer. Finally, our findings suggest that the topic of the influence of colors on sports competitions has not been thoroughly investigated and further studies are necessary. Key words: colors, boxing, perception, competition, cross-culture differences * Piotr Sorokowski, Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, ul. Dawida 1, 50-527 Wroclaw, Poland; sorokowskipiotr@yahoo.co.uk ** Institute of Psychology, University of Opole, Poland *** The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong **** Central University of Finance and Economics, Department of Organization and Human Resource Management, Beijing, China ***** Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Poland Brought to you by | The Chinese University of Hong Kong Authenticated | 10.248.254.158 Download Date | 9/14/14 5:44 PM