This post is dressed in blue

October 29, 2005 11:10 PM

To invoke Fast and the Furious: It's not how you play the game that matters, it's the color of your uniform
posted by daksya (21 comments total)

And, of course, the pink locker room at the University of Iowa.
posted by xmutex at 11:47 PM on October 29, 2005

And Tiger's red shirt (bottom of page)
posted by kyleg at 12:47 AM on October 30, 2005

pink locker room:

Critics say the use of pink demeans women, perpetuates offensive stereotypes about women and homosexuality

Whoa big stretch there. All the pink locker room is doing is playing on the individuals own internal perceptions. The very fact that the "Critics" assume pink is associated with women/homosexuals is hypocritical.
posted by jeblis at 1:08 AM on October 30, 2005

This is an oldie (but a goodie)

If you want to test this red=aggression theory then stress your friends by ..

1. Tell them they have to answer all your questions immediately - no hesitation even if the format of questions changes.

2. Make them do simple mental arithmetic on a continuous basis. So "1 plus 2 minus 3 plus 5 plus 4 divided by 3 times 4" etc....

3. Speed this up until they get f_cked off and do it long enough to augment the f_ucked off effect.

4. Then ask 'Favourite colour? Name a tool?"

Most of the time the answers will be "red" and "hammer" - The quasi-psychological explanation I use is red associates with aggression and they want to now hit me on the head with a hammer.

For best effect write these words on a bit of a paper and produce them Paul Daniels' style at the end. But as my analyst says "whatever dude".
posted by you're only jung once at 1:44 AM on October 30, 2005

Blue: Depression, coldness, obscenity, technology, ice, winter
posted by jeblis at 1:00 AM on October 30, 2005

Cool. neat time shift. I'm posting before my orginal comment. Kinda like that extra hour you get to drink in the bars tonight.
posted by jeblis at 1:03 AM on October 30, 2005

The perfect antidote to this article, of course, is watching an Arizona Cardinals game.
posted by selfnoise at 4:31 AM on October 30, 2005

wearing a colored uniform can give sportsmen a competitive edge

Right, that's why the Yankees have done so poorly over the decades.
posted by languagehat at 6:08 AM on October 30, 2005

Per jeblis' wiki link: conservatism is a positive connotation of blue but radicalism is a negative connotation of red?

Karl Rove has commandered the spectrum!11!!
posted by joe lisboa at 6:59 AM on October 30, 2005

The research was previously discussed here.
posted by goatdog at 7:28 AM on October 30, 2005

languagehat writes "that's why the Yankees have done so poorly over the decades."

The study isn't saying Red uniforms will prevail over other colours always. It's saying that there may be an advantage to the red wearer when closely matched opponents are assigned red randomly. IE: Everything else being equal the red player may have a very slight advantage. The Yankees large fan base have allowed them to field superior teams from the beginning accounting for their better than average success.

Besides which baseball isn't usually thought of as a combat sport.
posted by Mitheral at 7:31 AM on October 30, 2005

Leave the Iowa locker room! It is too funny. People have skin that's way too thin sometimes.
posted by j-urb at 8:11 AM on October 30, 2005

Yeah the White Sox beat, in order the Red Sox, the Angels, and the Astros. .all of which have some amount of RED in their unis.

And they won, arguably, because of their more aggressive game.
posted by Danf at 8:18 AM on October 30, 2005

Metafilter: You'll be craving red and a hammer.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:41 AM on October 30, 2005

Next you'll be telling me that "red and a hammer" has radical connotations, too.
posted by joe lisboa at 9:00 AM on October 30, 2005

I guess this finally answers the whole Red vs. Blue thing.
posted by graventy at 9:19 AM on October 30, 2005

This explains why no one will pass to me when I play skyclad.
posted by Smedleyman at 11:17 AM on October 30, 2005

(It's probably my red hammer)
posted by Smedleyman at 11:17 AM on October 30, 2005

I can't find a way to access the pubmed peer-reviewed article. Does anyone know if this is actually statistically significant?
posted by wumpus at 12:09 PM on October 30, 2005

I guess once we fix the performancing-enhancing drugs issue at the Olympics, we can set in on the performance-enhancing colours issue.

I foresee everyone having to be naked, painted battleship grey.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:18 PM on October 30, 2005

So that's why the original olympians competed in the nude.
posted by joe lisboa at 8:38 AM on November 1, 2005