If this is so , we ought tuh be wearing red aganist Panama.
TORONTO (CP) - It's the colour of passion, aggression and power, and if British research on sporting contests is to be believed, it's also the colour of winning - at least more often than not.
When it comes to bloodying opponents, it seems donning red has a distinct advantage, a study of Olympic fighting events and European soccer suggests.
Tiger Woods usually wears a red shirt for the final round of golf tournaments and Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool - who all wear red - have been among the most dominant teams in European soccer for decades.
What it may all come down to is male hormones, says lead investigator Russell Hill, a research fellow in evolutionary anthropology at Durham University.
"It could be those that are wearing the red shirts have elevated testosterone levels prior to actually engaging in the combat sports or a game of football (soccer) or whatever," Hill said from Durham, England.
"But we also would expect that the opposition team are also responding in some way with basically being presented with what is a hugely dominant individual with a massive red stimulus. So this may create a suppression in their hormonal pathways."
Hepped-up hormones certainly figure largely in nature, said Hill, whose study was prompted by research on male mandrills, ferocious-looking monkeys whose faces are marked by brilliant red and blue snouts.
"The colour red there is really the one that signals the dominance of males," said Hill. "The red coloration is related to testosterone levels in males, so dominant males tend to have very high testosterone levels, leading to this intense red coloration."