If you want to win in sports, wear red

If winning is everything, British anthropologists have some advice: Wear red.

If winning is everything, British anthropologists have some advice: Wear red. Their survey of four sports at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens shows competitors were more likely to win their contests if they wore red uniforms or red body armor.

"Across a range of sports, we find that wearing red is consistently associated with a higher probability of winning," report Russell A. Hill and Robert A. Barton of the University of Durham in England. Their findings are in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Red coloration is associated with aggression in many animals. Often it is sexually selected so that scarlet markings signal male dominance.

Just think of the red stripes on the scowling face of the male Mandrill, Africa's largest monkey species. But red is not exclusively a male trait. It's the female black widow spider that is venomous and displays a menacing red dot on her abdomen.

Similarly, the color's effect also may subconsciously intimidate opponents in athletic contests, especially when the athletes are equal in skill and strength, the researchers suggest.

In their survey, the anthropologists analyzed the results of four combat sports at the summer games: boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling.

In those events, the athletes were randomly assigned red protective gear and other sportwear.

Athletes wearing red gear won more often in 16 of 21 rounds of competition in all four events.

The effect was the same regardless of weight classes, too: 19 of 29 classes had more red winners, and only four rounds had more blue winners.

The red effect also might come into play in team sports.

The anthropologists made a preliminary analysis of the Euro 2004 international soccer tournament, in which teams wore jerseys of different colors in different matches. They found that five teams scored more goals and won more often when they wore shirts that were predominantly red, as opposed to blue or white jerseys.

Scientists don't precisely known how wearing red might give athletes an advantage. But the color delivers implicit messages of vigor and danger. When people get angry, their faces turn red. It's also a reason why stop signs are red. So are most Ferraris.

如果获胜对您来说很重要，那么英国人类学家建议您: 请穿红色的衣服参加比赛。他们对2004年雅典奥运会上的四个运动项目进行了调查研究，结果表明穿红色运动服或防护外套的运动员在比赛中获胜的可能性更大。

“通过对不同体育项目的研究，我们发现穿红色衣服通常意味着更高的获胜可能性。”英格兰杜伦大学的拉塞尔·A·希尔和罗伯特·A·巴顿说。他们的研究结果发表在本周四出版的《自然》杂志上。

对很多动物来说，红色象征着进攻。就两性而言，动物身上的红色斑纹象征着雄性的统治权。

只要想想雄性大狒狒愁眉不展的面孔上的红色条纹就很容易理解吧，它们可是非洲最大的猿类动物。但红色并不仅仅是雄性的特征，在雌性毒蜘蛛“黑寡妇”的腹部同样可以看到有威慑作用的红点。

研究者们认为，同样，在体育比赛中，红色也能够在潜意识上对竞争对手产生威慑作用，尤其当竞争双方的技巧和力量都不相上下时。

人类学家们还分析了雅典夏季奥运会中四项对抗性运动的比赛结果，它们分别是拳击、跆拳道、古典式摔跤和自由式摔跤。

在这些赛事中，红色的护具和运动装束被随机分配给运动员们。

在这四项赛事中，穿红色防护外套的运动员在21轮比赛中共获得16次胜利。

即使在不同重量级的比赛中，红色产生的效果也是相同的。在29个级别的比赛中，有19个级别的获胜者以穿红色居多，只有四轮比赛里穿蓝色的获胜者较多。

红色还可能会在集体运动项目中发挥效力。

人类学家们还对2004年欧洲国际足球锦标赛做了初步分析，就各支球队在不同的比赛中所穿的不同颜色的队服进行比较。他们发现有五支球队在穿红色基调的球衣与穿蓝色或白色球衣的对手抗衡时，他们的进球和获胜次数都增加了。

科学家们并不很确定穿红色衣服是如何使运动员获得优势的，但这种颜色暗含着活力和危险的信号。当人们愤怒时，他们的脸会涨得通红。这也是为什么停车标志被做成红色的一个原因，还有那么多红色的法拉利跑车。

anthropologist: 人类学家

scowling : 闷闷不乐的，愁眉不展的

Mandrill: a large, fierce baboon (Papio sphinx) of western Africa, having a beard, crest, and mane and brilliant blue, purple, and scarlet facial markings in the adult male（山魈，一种产于西非的大型狒狒 ，性情暴烈，成年雄性山魈有胡子，头上有冠状物和鬃毛，脸部有明亮的蓝色、紫色和红色标记）

black widow: a poisonous New World spider (Latrodectus mactans), the female of which produces extremely toxic venom and has a black, shiny body with red markings（黑寡妇蜘蛛，西半球的一种有毒蜘蛛，其雌蜘蛛可以释放剧毒毒液，并有黑色、发光身体及红色斑纹）

menacing: 威胁的，险恶的

stop sign: 停车标志