Spanish FCYT [PETROSIS PA-18-ACB17-11]; Goverment of Asturias, Spai

Cárdenes van den Eynde, Víctor

Merinero, R.

Rubio Ordóñez, Álvaro

English

Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Oviedo

GENERAL COMMENTARYpublished: 23 July 2018doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01213Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 July 2018 | Volume 9 | Article 1213Edited by:Ana-Maria Cebolla,Free University of Brussels, BelgiumReviewed by:Roland Seiler,Universität Bern, Switzerland*Correspondence:Víctor Cárdenescardenes@geol.uniovi.esSpecialty section:This article was submitted toMovement Science and SportPsychology,a section of the journalFrontiers in PsychologyReceived: 19 April 2018Accepted: 26 June 2018Published: 23 July 2018Citation:Cárdenes V, Lafuente JC, Merinero Rand Rubio-Ordoñez Á (2018)Commentary: Does Blue UniformColor Enhance Winning Probability inJudo Contests?Front. Psychol. 9:1213.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01213Commentary: Does Blue UniformColor Enhance Winning Probability inJudo Contests?Víctor Cárdenes 1*, Jorge C. Lafuente 2, Raúl Merinero 3 and Álvaro Rubio-Ordoñez 11Department of Geology, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain, 2Departmento de Educación Física y Deportiva, Universidadde León, León, Spain, 3Department of Crystallography and Mineralogy, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, SpainKeywords: judo, color, bias, competition, contestA commentary onDoes Blue Uniform Color Enhance Winning Probability in Judo Contests?by Dijkstra, P. D., Preenen, P. T. Y., and van Essen, H. (2018). Front. Psychol. 9:45. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00045The commented paper Dijkstra et al. (2018) is an exhaustive work which sheds light on the roleof the white and blue judogi (judo outfit) in judo contests. The importance of colored uniformshas been proven in other sports (i.e., Attrill et al., 2008; Falcó et al., 2016; Krenn et al., 2017).During the recent 2017 World Cup races in Stavanger, Norway, several speedskating teamschanged their traditional colors to different shades of blue, since it was believed that “blue isfaster.” There is no scientific evidence to back up this statement, but the skaters, in fact, feltfaster.The use of the blue judogi was first suggested by A. Geesink in 1986 and introduced in1997. This change was made to enhance the visualization of the contest. Prior to this change,the competitors were identified by wearing a red or white belt besides their own belt. Withthe introduction of the blue judogi, the competition became clearer and easier to understandfor the general public. However, for some in the judo world, the blue judogi was contrary tothe tradition and the spirit of judo (Matsumoto et al., 1997). In the following years, severalpapers were published pointing out the existence of a color-driven bias (Rowe et al., 2005;Matsumoto et al., 2007; Julio et al., 2015), and others showing no bias at all (Dijkstra andPreenen, 2008). There was no consensus about this question, which is a significant one fora sport that is practiced at all levels, up to and including the Olympics. The results of thesestudies were negatively affected by the small number of contests analyzed (400–1,600) andalso by the seeding effect. Dijkstra et al. (2018) have solved this uncertainty by analyzingmore than 42,000 contests, making their conclusions statistically representative. According toDijkstra et al. (2018), there is a bias toward the “first called athlete,” who has a greaterchance of winning the match, especially from the sixteenth (1/16) round. This “first calledathlete” bias is independent of the judogi color. Before 2011, the athlete wearing the bluejudogi was called first, and since 2011 the one wearing the white judogi has been calledfirst. In both cases the bias favored the first called athlete. For Dijkstra et al. (2018) thisCárdenes et al. Commentary Color Advantage Judo Contestsbias would be due to factors like seeding, skill of the athletes, oreven intercontest intervals. However, we have two remarks thatare intended to complement the conclusions of Dijkstra et al.(2018).THE “FIRST CALLED ATHLETE” BIAS VS.“RIGHT HAND OF THE REFEREE” BIASThe first called athlete is always at the right hand of thereferee. The referee is the person who judges the athletes’actions, evaluating those actions according to International JudoFederation (IJF) rules without any nuance. Nevertheless, thereferee’s decisions might be influenced by subjective factors(Plessner and Haar, 2006) inherent to the contest, and also byhis/her own motor experience (Dosseville et al., 2011). As istrue of the general population, 90% of the referees are assumedto be right-handed (Scharoun and Bryden, 2014). The relativeposition of the athletes in relation to the referee might explainthe bias toward his/her right hand. The referee might paymore attention to events happening to his/her right than tothe left. Another interesting point is that, in most of the videocontests (Olympic Games and World Championships, source:www.youtube.com) that were observed, the referee tends tomoveto his/her right side immediately after the start/restart of thecontest. This fact might suggest that the referee has a better viewof the athlete on the right and thus is prone to give him/herbetter scores. If this is the case, the “first called athlete” biasmight be more accurately called the “right hand of the referee”bias.ASYMMETRYThe asymmetry between athletes is the degree of dissimilaritybetween their fighting skills and is the decisive factor in whoFIGURE 1 | Number of contests finished (y axis) vs. time in seconds (x axis). Left graphic for contest time = 300 s, right graphic for contest time = 240 s. In gray, datafor men; red for women’s data. Data retrieved from judobase.ijf.org.wins the match. Previous studies considered this asymmetryto be higher in the early rounds, due to seeding (Rowe et al.,2005; Dijkstra and Preenen, 2008; Julio et al., 2015; Dijkstraet al., 2018), and so the results of the early rounds havebeen thought to be biased by seeding. For us, the asymmetrycan be measured by the contest’s duration. When there isgreat asymmetry, the contest time will be short, since thewinner will not have much trouble in ending the match. Onthe other hand, when both athletes have similar skills (lowasymmetry), the contest will probably last the full duration.We analyzed the duration of 6,410 contests (Figure 1) fromthe same datasheets used by Dijkstra et al. (2018), finding fourintervals of asymmetry, which roughly coincide with the quartilesof the contest time measured in seconds, plus a fifth intervalof very low asymmetry, defined when the contest continuesinto extra time. We analyzed 300- and 240-second contests.Usually, 300-second contests are used for men’s categories, while240-second contests are used for women’s categories, but thisdepends on the organization rules of each competition. Thus,asymmetry is defined by five categories: very high asymmetry(contest ends in the 1st quartile, Q1), high asymmetry (Q2),moderate asymmetry (Q3), low asymmetry (Q4), and very lowasymmetry (extra time). It is notable that for both men andwomen the asymmetry intervals are the same. These asymmetryintervals describe accurately the intrinsic differences between theopponents.CONCLUDING REMARKSThe commented paper (Dijkstra et al., 2018) is a complete andsolid work that has shown that the color of the judogi does notproduce a bias in judo contests, unlike in other combat sportsin which the color red definitively causes a bias (Hagemannet al., 2008; Falcó et al., 2016). Instead, in judo there is anotherbias, not related to color, called the “first called athlete” bias.Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 2 July 2018 | Volume 9 | Article 1213Cárdenes et al. Commentary Color Advantage Judo ContestsThe reason for this bias is still uncertain, but we stronglybelieve that it is due to the referee and his/her dominanthand. This conjecture is interesting enough to merit furtherresearch.AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSVC wrote the manuscript and analyzed the data. RM analyzedthe data. JL and ÁR-O drew the graphics and wrote themanuscript.FUNDINGThis work has been partially funded with the project PETROSISPA-18-ACB17-11, granted by the Spanish FCYT and theGoverment of Asturias, Spain.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThanks to language editor Deirdre Casey for her review of thearticle.REFERENCESAttrill, M. J., Gresty, K. A., Hill, R. A., and Barton, R. A. (2008). Red shirt colouris associated with long-term team success in English football. J. Sports Sci. 26,577–582. doi: 10.1080/02640410701736244Dijkstra, P. D., and Preenen, P. T. (2008). No effect of blue on winning contests injudo. Proc. R. Soc. B 275, 1157–1162. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1700Dijkstra, P. D., Preenen, P. T. Y., and Van Essen, H. (2018). Does blue uniformcolor enhance winning probability in Judo Contests? Front. Psychol. 9:45.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00045Dosseville, F., Laborde, S., and Raab, M. (2011). Contextual and personalmotor experience effects in Judo referees’ decisions. Sport Psychol. 25, 67–81.doi: 10.1123/tsp.25.1.67Falcó, C., Conchado, A., and Estevan, I. (2016). The effect of color on the useof electronic body protectors in taekwondo matches. Percept. Mot. Skills 122,812–824. doi: 10.1177/0031512516649958Hagemann, N., Strauss, B., and Leissing, J. (2008). When the referee sees red.Psychol. Sci. 19, 769–771. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02155.xJulio, U. F., Miarka, B., Rosa, J. P., Lima, G. H., Takito, M. Y., and Franchini, E.(2015). Blue judogi may bias competitive performance when seeding system isnot used: sex, age, and level of competition effects. Percept. Mot. Skills 20, 28–37.doi: 10.2466/30.PMS.120v15x2Krenn, B., Pernhaupt, N., and Handsteiner, M. (2017). Do red and blue uniformsmatter in football and handball penalties? J. Sports Sci. Med. 16, 565–573.Matsumoto, D., Konno, J., Hata, S., and Takeuchi, M. (2007). Blue judogis may biascompetition outcomes. Res. J. Budo 3, 1–7. doi: 10.11214/budo1968.39.3_1Matsumoto, D., Takeuchi, M., and Takeuchi, S. (1997). The need for leadership andscience in judo - The problem of color judogi. Res. J. Budo 29, 44–63.Plessner, H., and Haar, T. (2006). Sports performance judgments froma social cognitive perspective. Psychol. Sport Exerc. 7, 555–575.doi: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2006.03.007Rowe, C., Harris, J. M., and Roberts, S. C. (2005). Seeing red? Putting sportswearin context. Nature 437:E10. doi: 10.1038/nature04306Scharoun, S. M., and Bryden, P. J. (2014). Hand preference, performanceabilities, and hand selection in children. Front. Psychol. 5:82.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00082Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that the research wasconducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that couldbe construed as a potential conflict of interest.Copyright © 2018 Cárdenes, Lafuente, Merinero and Rubio-Ordoñez. This is anopen-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionLicense (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted,provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that theoriginal publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academicpractice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not complywith these terms.Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 3 July 2018 | Volume 9 | Article 1213

Commentary: Does blue uniform color enhance winning probability in judo contests?

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Oviedo