Stella McCartney may have disadvantaged Team GB by failing to include more red in their outfits for London 2012. The designs – based around a deconstructed Union flag – drew a mixed reaction after they were unveiled at the Tower of London on Thursday, but were criticised by a leading sports psychologist as well as an academic who has done extensive research on the impact of uniform colour on athlete performance.
Professor Robert Barton, along with his university of Durham colleague Dr Russell Hill, co-authored a report in 2005 that showed that wearing the colour red consistently increased athletes' probability of victory. Their initial study was based around combat sports – for which competitors are randomly assigned either blue or red uniforms – at the Athens Olympics, but subsequent research has shown similar trends across a range of sports.
"Obviously she has designed these from a fashion point of view and was not taking into account the possible effects that might have on performance," said Barton of the uniforms, which are predominantly blue and white, and in most cases feature only a red trim around the collar. "Given there's an obvious justification for [including more red] and given the effects that we and other scientists have found, it does seem like a mistake."
Research into the reasons behind the colour's apparent impact are ongoing, with Barton and Hill conducting experimental studies to see if athletes' testosterone levels are affected. One German study has shown that officials may be subconsciously swayed – with judges scoring bouts significantly differently when the colours worn by athletes were digitally reversed on videos.
Either way, the clinical sports psychologist Dr Victor Thompson argued that Britain had missed a chance to give their athletes a helping hand. "When sport means so much and the outcome is often decided in millimetres or thousandths of a second, we should be doing all we can to help our athletes achieve," he said.
"I think that the GB Olympic designers may have missed an opportunity here to include more red in the design. This may have helped give the GB wearers a boost psychologically that would be reflected in physical performance – for instance, if the red increased confidence, [positive] aggression and sense that they are dominant, then they are likely to perform closer to their peak performance potential
"In addition, there may be negative effects on opponents, facing our athletes wearing significant amounts of red, where they assume a less confident and more submissive position in the sporting contests. While these effects are likely to be small, when it comes to the Olympics, the margins between gold and silver, medal and non-medal, are small.
"Outside the Olympics, Tiger Woods for years has worn red on the last day of his tournaments, and we all know how dominant he was. Was this something he learned from research, from observation or from his own experience?"