A new video study has found that the red player may receive favourable scoring by the corner referees.
42 Taekwondo referees were asked to score various clips of sparring video. Even when the colour of chest protectors and helmets were digitally switched, red came out with 13 percent more points, although their performances were identical.
This adds to existing research which shows red clothing positively impacts an athlete’s performance even when they’re not being judged. This is attributed to an association between the colour red and dominance and/or aggression.
So should we be fighting to wear the red hogu at tournaments? In the worst-case scenario (worst for blue), a score of 11-11 would become 11-12.43 with a 13% scoring bias for red — enough to win them the match. But before we start recruiting colour blind referees, let’s consider the possibility that red’s advantage could be offset by other biases, such as how the scoring button for blue is always held in the referee’s right hand. This is important since about 80 percent of people are right handed, and the dominant hand is widely known to have a faster reaction time (nearly twice as fast for simple tasks). If better reaction time results in more referees clicking within the one-second scoring window, blue will have a slight advantage.
» Full article: Referees award more points when they see red
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