It turns out I am not the only one who has done research on black jerseys. Two men from Cornell University did a a series of studies in 1988 on the psychological implications of black jerseys on human aggression. I'll break down their research and paraphrase their article since it is a lengthy read, along with relating it to the BJT, of course.
Study 1:
Twenty-five people who knew absolutely nothing about the NFL or NHL (and their respective sports) were shown various teams jerseys and asked to rate them on 5 different scales relating to how the jerseys appeared to them (good/bad, timid/aggressive, nice/mean, active/passive, weak/strong). Each league had five teams with black colored jerseys. The researchers were able to combine the three of the five aspects relating to aggressiveness (the first three listed) into a single score, and they found that "teams with black uniforms were consistently rated as being more aggressive than their counterparts."
Study 2:
The researchers obtained penalty records from the NFL and NHL for every team from 1970 through 1985/86. Their philosophy was that if a team received more penalty yards, they were playing more aggressive, since the aggressive penalties in football, such as roughing the passer, pass interference, etc., equate to more penalty yards. Similar with hockey, more aggressive penalties meant more penalty minutes, so if a team had more penalty minutes, it would be a more aggressive team.
The top five most penalized teams in the NFL from '70-'86 were also the only five teams in the NFL that wore black jerseys. In the same time frame for the NHL, four of the top five teams in penalties minutes wore black jerseys.
There have been two foundings so far: 1) people think that individuals dressed in black are more aggressive and 2) teams wearing black jerseys are the most aggressive teams in their sports. This led them to this question and their next study: "isn't it possible that people calling penalties are simply more prone to calling them on teams in black?"
Study 3:
This study investigated whether or not people would call penalties more on players wearing black jerseys than those wearing a different color. Two identical plays were filmed of a potential penalty occurring with one video having the offense in black and defense in white and the other with offense in white, defense in black. A group of college kids and a group of professional referees were taken and each split into two groups (forming four groups). The first group watched in color, seeing the jerseys were black vs white, and the second group watched in black and white, not being able to tell what color the dark jersey was as it could have been black, blue, red, green, etc.
The results showed that for the color film, black jerseys were called penalties on more than the white jerseys, even though they were identical plays. For the black and white films, when the dark jersey color was not known, there was no difference in the way the play was called.
Study 4:
Researches concluded from Study 3 that people perceive others wearing black as being more aggressive, even though they may not be, which brought them to their final question: "What do we think of ourselves when we're in black?" They wanted to see whether or not people became more aggressive simply by wearing black jerseys.
This study is a little more complicated. People were put into three groups, and each group was told they would be competing against the other groups in a series of five activities chosen from a list of twelve. Before being grouped, each individual was asked what their five favorite activities/sports were. The list includes sports with various degrees of aggressiveness such as golf (least aggressive), basketball (more aggressive), football (even more aggressive). In order to get aggressiveness ratings for the sports, a separate group of thirty people were asked to rank the twelve sports on their levels of aggressiveness.
The subjects decided amongst their groups on which sports they wanted to compete in before being issued jerseys. Then teams were either issued white or black jerseys. The researchers were looking for two things: "would a team wearing black become more aggressive than they had been as individuals", and "would the teams wearing black choose more aggressive sports than the white uniform teams."
The results were found to be conclusive again. The individuals who were put on a team with black jerseys became significantly more aggressive in their choice of activities. The group wearing black was not only more aggressive than the individuals as a whole, but the were also more aggressive than the groups with white jerseys. The white jerseys group's aggression barely changed at all from what they had originally chosen.
These four studies found these simple facts:
- We make quick judgements about people and what they are wearing.
- We assume that people wearing black are more aggressive than those not wearing black.
- When people wear black, they feel and act more aggressive
Interesting stuff.
Feel free to read the entire article as it will provide more detail and clarity on the study.
It turns out black jerseys actually do affect they way people act and play. The previous and future posts with examples of teams winning with black jerseys has turned out to not just be a bunch of coincidences. For teams who don't usually wear black jerseys, wearing black for a game or two a season will gift them a boost of energy, confidence, and aggression which usually results in teams playing better and winning! It's hard to bet against this study and the facts of teams winning in black.
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Oklahoma State wore black alternate jerseys in their 31-28 come
from behind victory in 2009 against Colorado. |
The Cowboys trailed by 11 at one point and won despite having to use their third-string quarterback in the 2nd half. Justin Blackmon caught this go ahead 28 yard TD pass in the 4th quarter. This was the first time Oklahoma State wore black jerseys since 1994.
