Better to be red than blue in virtual competition

Andrei Ilie; Silvia Ioan; Leon Zagrean; Mihai Moldovan

doi:10.1089/cpb.2007.0122

Better to be red than blue in virtual competition

Andrei Ilie, Silvia Ioan, Leon Zagrean, Mihai Moldovan

27 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the 2004 Olympic Games, opponents wearing red athletic uniforms were more likely to win against opponents wearing blue uniforms. To investigate whether this color bias extends to the world of virtual competition, we compared the performance of red and blue teams in a popular multiplayer first-person-shooter (FPS) computer game. For 3 consecutive months, we collected data from a publicly available global statistics server. Outcomes from 1,347 matches played by the top 10 players on the same virtual arena were included. Red teams won 54.9% of matches, and this effect was highly significant. Our data suggest that joining the red team may offer a slight advantage over the blue team in virtual competition, and this should be accounted for when designing FPS games. It is likely that "seeing red" may trigger a powerful psychological distractor signal in human aggressive competition that can affect the outcome of sports and virtual contests alike.

Original language	English
Journal	CyberPsychology & Behavior
Volume	11
Issue number	3
Pages (from-to)	375-7
Number of pages	2
ISSN	1094-9313
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2007.0122
Publication status	Published - 2008

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title = "Better to be red than blue in virtual competition",

abstract = "In the 2004 Olympic Games, opponents wearing red athletic uniforms were more likely to win against opponents wearing blue uniforms. To investigate whether this color bias extends to the world of virtual competition, we compared the performance of red and blue teams in a popular multiplayer first-person-shooter (FPS) computer game. For 3 consecutive months, we collected data from a publicly available global statistics server. Outcomes from 1,347 matches played by the top 10 players on the same virtual arena were included. Red teams won 54.9% of matches, and this effect was highly significant. Our data suggest that joining the red team may offer a slight advantage over the blue team in virtual competition, and this should be accounted for when designing FPS games. It is likely that {"}seeing red{"} may trigger a powerful psychological distractor signal in human aggressive competition that can affect the outcome of sports and virtual contests alike.",

author = "Andrei Ilie and Silvia Ioan and Leon Zagrean and Mihai Moldovan",

note = "Keywords: Athletic Performance; Choice Behavior; Color Perception; Competitive Behavior; Humans; Internet; Mathematical Computing; Motivation; Probability; Social Identification; Sports; User-Computer Interface; Video Games",

year = "2008",

doi = "10.1089/cpb.2007.0122",

language = "English",

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T1 - Better to be red than blue in virtual competition

AU - Ilie, Andrei

AU - Ioan, Silvia

AU - Zagrean, Leon

AU - Moldovan, Mihai

N1 - Keywords: Athletic Performance; Choice Behavior; Color Perception; Competitive Behavior; Humans; Internet; Mathematical Computing; Motivation; Probability; Social Identification; Sports; User-Computer Interface; Video Games

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - In the 2004 Olympic Games, opponents wearing red athletic uniforms were more likely to win against opponents wearing blue uniforms. To investigate whether this color bias extends to the world of virtual competition, we compared the performance of red and blue teams in a popular multiplayer first-person-shooter (FPS) computer game. For 3 consecutive months, we collected data from a publicly available global statistics server. Outcomes from 1,347 matches played by the top 10 players on the same virtual arena were included. Red teams won 54.9% of matches, and this effect was highly significant. Our data suggest that joining the red team may offer a slight advantage over the blue team in virtual competition, and this should be accounted for when designing FPS games. It is likely that "seeing red" may trigger a powerful psychological distractor signal in human aggressive competition that can affect the outcome of sports and virtual contests alike.

AB - In the 2004 Olympic Games, opponents wearing red athletic uniforms were more likely to win against opponents wearing blue uniforms. To investigate whether this color bias extends to the world of virtual competition, we compared the performance of red and blue teams in a popular multiplayer first-person-shooter (FPS) computer game. For 3 consecutive months, we collected data from a publicly available global statistics server. Outcomes from 1,347 matches played by the top 10 players on the same virtual arena were included. Red teams won 54.9% of matches, and this effect was highly significant. Our data suggest that joining the red team may offer a slight advantage over the blue team in virtual competition, and this should be accounted for when designing FPS games. It is likely that "seeing red" may trigger a powerful psychological distractor signal in human aggressive competition that can affect the outcome of sports and virtual contests alike.

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DO - 10.1089/cpb.2007.0122

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JO - Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking

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Better to be red than blue in virtual competition

Abstract

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