Should I stay or should I go now? Empirical and real-life observations of the effect of uniform colour on inhibitory control

Abstract

We asked whether inhibitory control during sport is influenced by uniform colour. Participants were instructed to pass to the larger side of an opponent wearing red, green, or grey (control) uniforms, but not when that side was defended. Correct inhibition of responses was lower when opponents wore uniforms that were green compared to grey, but not red compared to grey, suggesting that perceiving green impaired inhibition. We therefore interrogated archival data to examine the association between green uniforms and intercepted passes–if green impairs an opponent’s inhibitory control, more ill-chosen passes should occur. Netball teams wearing predominantly green uniforms completed significantly more intercepts than teams wearing other-coloured (control) uniforms, suggesting that the colour of their uniform may have promoted a higher proportion of ill-chosen passes by opponents. Colour may influence inhibition in sport due to a colour-meaning association–green is “go”.