Good thing our colors are red(ish)...

CloneAggie · 07-11-2008, 10:28 AM

A study in Germany found that referees may be biased towards the color red.

Referees award more points when the see red

To test their theory, they showed 42 referees of the martial art taekwondo video excerpts from sparring rounds between similarly skilled athletes. In each video, one athlete wore blue protective gear and one wore red.

Each referee individually judged each clip, assigning points for the attacks made. They then watched the same bouts, in a different order, but this time with the colour of the protective gear digitally reversed, so that combatants wearing blue now appeared to wear red, and vice versa.

The team found that referees gave 13% more points to red competitors, even when the performances were exactly the same.

Unfortunately, they don't think it will be as big of a bias for team sports...

As for team games, Hagemann expects some minor bias amongst referees, "but the effect should be small compared to a combat sport [where] the outcome is mainly based on several judgments," he says. "In team sports there could be a bias only in ambiguous tackling situations and these are usually rare."