Smash Science - The Color Metagame

Welcome to the first ever edition of Smash Science! This will be a special series of articles delving into the curiosities of Smash through a scientific lens. Imagine if the color of the character a player chose could affect their win rate. Now think if the colors of a stage chosen could change the way two competitors played out a match. Both of these things are VERY possible. So sit down and prepare to learn the science of The Color Metagame!

Color Psychology​

Color psychology is a very unique form of psychological study where scientists study how various color hues can affect human behavior. It may not seem like colors have that much power over the human psyche but it has been proven they often do. They can change how we taste food, reduce crime rates, change how attractive we find people, make people more likely to purchase products, but most importantly to Smash players potentially increase their win rates and change how they play during a given match.

Red vs Blue​

Many competitive sports as well as video games place competitors into separate uniforms with specific colors with the most commonly used being red and blue. While most would never see this as unfair the competitors in red have actually been shown to win more matches of even skill than those who were in blue. In a study publish in 2008 data was taken from 1,347 games with equally skilled players in Unreal Tournament 2004, a game in which teams were either the red team or the blue team. While the data was expected to be split much closer to the middle it turned out that the team in red won 5% more matches than the team in blue.

While it may not seem like a large number, those conducting the study found it to be quite 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." the study published. So why is it that the red could actually increase their win rate? "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."

Taken From Psychology: Red Enhances Human Performance In Contests​

It doesn't stop in the world of virtual competition either. A study done during the 2004 Olympic games showed that those of equal skill who wore red while competing in boxing, taekwondo, and freestyle wrestling won 10% more of their matches than their blue wearing counterparts. Another study also showed referees were more likely to award the player wearing red more points than those in blue. A study of the 2004 EUFA European Championship found teams in red were more likely to win games and perform better. Yet another study showing player taking penalty kicks in soccer were likely to perform worse if the goalkeeper wore a red uniform.

So does this article just end with Red is Best? It might have if not for studies done within League of Legends. In said study done for The Daily Dot, it was shown that players who were on the blue team were the ones winning a significantly larger number of matches. In the 2014 North American Summer Playoffs for League of Legends the teams in blue won 79.3% of games over their red counterparts. The colors actually affected many aspects of play whether red or blue was chosen all of which can be found in the original study here.

This study however does not show that red cannot offer an advantage, nor does it show that these color choices and results came from random luck. It shows that different colors will help players perform in different ways. It seems that blue colors encourage creativity and thinking in the long term where as red colors encouraged more aggression among players. Famous Youtube channel The Game Theorists covered this subject in more detail in a video released in June of 2015 which can be viewed by those wanting to learn even more.

Applications In Smash​

So how can this color psychology be applied to matches in Super Smash Bros? To start it is worth knowing the affects and associations created in people by the most common colors seen. These descriptions are taken courtesy of Colour Affects UK.

---​

Red

• Positives: Courage, strength, warmth, energy, 'fight or flight', stimulation, masculinity, excitement
• Negatives: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain

Blue

• Positive: Intelligence, communication, trust, efficiency, serenity, duty, logic, coolness, reflection, calm.
• Negative: Coldness, aloofness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness.

Yellow

• Positive: Optimism, confidence, self-esteem, extroversion, emotional strength, friendliness, creativity.
• Negative: Irrationality, fear, emotional fragility, anxiety,

Green

• Positive: Harmony, balance, refreshment, rest, restoration, reassurance, equilibrium, peace.
• Negative: Boredom, stagnation, blandness, enervation.

Purple

• Positive: Containment, vision, luxury, authenticity, truth, quality.
  
• Negative: Introversion, decadence, suppression, inferiority.

Orange

• Positive: Physical comfort, food, warmth, security, passion, abundance, fun.
• Negative: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity.

Pink

• Positive: Physical tranquillity, nurture, warmth, femininity, love, survival of the species.
• Negative: Inhibition, emotional claustrophobia, emasculation, physical weakness.

Grey

• Positive: Psychological neutrality.
• Negative: Lack of confidence, dampness, depression, hibernation, lack of energy.

Black

• Positive: Sophistication, glamour, security, emotional safety, efficiency, substance.
• Negative: Oppression, coldness, menace, heaviness.

White

• Positive: Hygiene, sterility, clarity, purity, cleanness, simplicity, sophistication, efficiency.
• Negative: Sterility, coldness, barriers, unfriendliness, elitism.

Brown

• Positive: Seriousness, warmth, Nature, earthiness, reliability, support.
• Negative: Lack of humour, heaviness, lack of sophistication.

---​

So when choosing the colors of character outfits or stages these things can be considered. Need to have aggression and confidence in a match? A consider costumes with red, orange, and yellow while picking stages with with lots of similar bright colors. Need to stay calm, collected, and creative? Consider blues or purples Blues could also be useful for teams matches as it encourages communication.

Remember these advantages only start to really show themselves in games where players are equally skilled so these color choices will not give a large edge in a lopsided match. There are many more applications for these color choices that are there to be found so be sure to experiment!

That is all from this edition of Smash Science! Learn something interesting from the article or have a cool application for colors in Smash we missed? Sound off in the comments below and stay tuned to Smashboards for future Smash Science articles!

 

All this time I thought I was crazy by thinking my switching costume color was affecting my game play. Guess I wasn't far off.

 

"Purple

• 
  
  
  • Negative: Introversion"

Boo! (not a fan of that source; it does not seem as scientific as they make themselves out to be)

Anyways, something I am thinking about is, in the context of Smash Bros, is a more interesting thing to look at perhaps the colour of the stage you are on? Could counterpicking a red stage make a defensive player more aggressive, possibly to your advantage? etc.

 

I get how certain colors can be associated with certain things, but does a lot of this seem rather to anyone else?

 

I always feel like these studies are pretty pointless and really have no actual applications in Smash or eSports of any kind. The attributes given to blue have been attributes associated to that color forever.

 

Blue:

• Positive: Intelligence, ... efficiency, ... logic, coolness

• Negative: Coldness, aloofness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness.

Grey

• Positive: Psychological neutrality.

Basically blue or grey is best color for ?

 

White

• Positive: Hygiene, sterility, clarity, purity, cleanness, simplicity, sophistication, efficiency.
• Negative: Sterility, coldness, barriers, unfriendliness, elitism.
  
  That sterility being a positive and negative. Where's that neutral position yo?

I believe its referring to sterility positively as perfectly clean, and negatively as in the inability to concieve a child?

 

Like I said, that's a generalisation. Not science.

I'm not disagreeing with you, lol.

 

In Smash especially, a lot of characters can only excel in one particular play style. I wouldn't stop playing Captain Falcon aggressively just because I picked the blue colour, for example.

I don't necessarily believe the article's implying you play the character differently because of the color.

Rather it addresses how an opponent of equal skill may react to the color.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you, lol.

I apologise if that was the case, but I think you may have also misunderstood my point. I don't necessarily think more aggressive people would pick red. I just don't think colour has any noteworthy effect, if any, on play style, nor do I think play style has an effect on colour choice in Smash.

It should also be noted that just because someone likes to play aggressively in Smash, doesn't mean they are actually aggressive people. It's simply a tactical/strategic choice to play a certain way.

I don't necessarily believe the article's implying you play the character differently because of the color.

Rather it addresses how an opponent of equal skill may react to the color.

That's equally as absurd an assertion.

 

I apologise if that was the case, but I think you may have also misunderstood my point. I don't necessarily think more aggressive people would pick red. I just don't think colour has any noteworthy effect, if any, on play style, nor do I think play style has an effect on colour choice in Smash.

It should also be noted that just because someone likes to play aggressively in Smash, doesn't mean they are actually aggressive people. It's simply a tactical/strategic choice to play a certain way.

Makes sense. I was going the "confounding variable" route.

 

I get how certain colors can be associated with certain things, but does a lot of this seem rather to anyone else?

Oddish indeed.

Like I mentioned before, there's no advantage to picking red or blue over the other... in the 2008 Olympics, the color blue won more than red.

I don't necessarily believe the article's implying you play the character differently because of the color.

Rather it addresses how an opponent of equal skill may react to the color.

That would be entirely subjective, and not arbitrary like the article suggests.

The only color I react to is the black alts.
"Ugh, people, there is MORE THAN ONE SHEIK COLOR."

 

I actually took this into account, but I only thought of blue in terms of calm and collected and red in terms of more fearlessness and aggression (also potentially making your opponent more scared and defensive), so a list for ALL the colours was really useful. Also, however, I don't think we should worry about this in terms of stage, because changing colour only really changes what was described in the video, whereas for stage counterpicks are really important for reasons aside from this and I think the advantage those provide is much more important.

 

"Ugh, people, there is MORE THAN ONE SHEIK COLOR."

So many black cladded Sheiks. Personally, my favorite color of her's is green.

Spoiler

for some reason the red Sheikah symbol on her green clothing reminds me of apples. The attire itself is also reminiscent of Saria.

 

So many black cladded Sheiks. Personally, my favorite color of her's is green.

Spoiler

for some reason the red Sheikah symbol on her green clothing reminds me of apples. The attire itself is also reminiscent of Saria.

And choosing that color would give you more "benefit" than red, blue, orange, or whatever the heck.

It's about personal taste... not competitive science.

 

in the 2008 Olympics, the color blue won more than red.

The article is not saying that red is outright better than blue, it just makes it easier to be more aggressive rather than logical. Even if you're suggesting that red should help more in this case, that was just 2008; more samples are probably needed for more accurate results. (...unless that's the case for other years, in which case I have no argument : P)

To everybody else, even though there is a chance that the slight increase in win rates might just be the inevitable, there's the more probable chance (supported by a bunch of evidence) that yes, colors do matter.

And for those who didn't read the article, no, it is not saying "red automatically raises your chances for winning". It just seems to help in cases where being aggressive is good, like boxing and stuff. Meanwhile, other colors are good for other times, shown at the bottom of the article.
Whether or not that means certain colors help you (e.g. blue helps you think) the way music does, certain colors hinder you from other things (e.g. red makes it harder to think), or if color just affects your mood in a certain way (if there's proof mood affects playing, then I don't have to say any more), I don't actually know, but the proof is still there.
Maybe I don't actually know what I'm saying (I do have a red profile pic lol), but if you're going to argue don't hate ~

 

The article is not saying that red is outright better than blue, it just makes it easier to be more aggressive rather than logical. Even if you're suggesting that red should help more in this case, that was just 2008; more samples are probably needed for more accurate results. (...unless that's the case for other years, in which case I have no argument : P)

To everybody else, even though there is a chance that the slight increase in win rates might just be the inevitable, there's the more probable chance (supported by a bunch of evidence) that yes, colors do matter.

And for those who didn't read the article, no, it is not saying "red automatically raises your chances for winning". It just seems to help in cases where being aggressive is good, like boxing and stuff. Meanwhile, other colors are good for other times, shown at the bottom of the article.

Maybe I don't actually know what I'm saying (I do have a red profile pic lol), but if you're going to argue don't hate ~

Yeah. I mean, it really depends on what you are aiming for- I mean even playing the same character, the colour they should use might depend on whether they want to, say, be more aggressive with their falco with red or play a laser shutdown game with blue.

 

"Purple

• 
  
  
  • Negative: Introversion"

Boo! (not a fan of that source; it does not seem as scientific as they make themselves out to be)

Anyways, something I am thinking about is, in the context of Smash Bros, is a more interesting thing to look at perhaps the colour of the stage you are on? Could counterpicking a red stage make a defensive player more aggressive, possibly to your advantage? etc.

I don't think that worrying about this is worth it because there are so many other things that make counterpicking stages important that are more important than this.

 

But when options are equal not considering colour, which one do you pick? Especially could come in use with omegas

 

But when options are equal not considering colour, which one do you pick? Especially could come in use with omegas

Wow, I didn't think of this... in melee (since that's all I really play) I figured that the other advantages you get from stage counterpicks far outweigh the colour advantage, but with omegas, this is something imteresting...

 

But hey, that's just a theory...A Game Theory!

 

But hey, that's just a theory...A Game Theory!

Ugh

 

Green boys.

 

Like I said, that's a generalisation. Not science.

Science:
"the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment."

I think this fits under the scope of science.

 

Weirdly enough, the color I use for my mains and my secondary represent how I play them xD
-Roy koopa (red): Use UpB a little to much as an attack rather than a recovery move
-Duck Hunt (yellow): My main for doubles and always worry to hit my teammate
-Robin (Pink): Use my tomes more than my sword

 

This is the dumbest **** ever.

I pick blue Sonic because the rest of them look weird to me and I pick whatever stage works for me or whatever omega has the song I wanna hear.

 

The colors on your choice stage will have substantially more influence than your character colors. Very cool article otherwise, just not as absolutely applicable as impressed upon. And I was reading more articles in that wiki but the information seems very hard to believe.

http://www.colour-affects.co.uk/colour-personality-type-2-dreamlight

That above link is for one of many articles claiming that your personality and behavior will be based on eye, hair and skin color. That can't be passed as even close to accurate haha. I think the most valid psychological study for smash is Pavlov's dogs. Possibly the tangibility of psychic energy from Jung when looking at possible preconceived complexes by advantageous/weak character match-ups. Don't get me wrong colors do effect us more than we know, but that wiki is a poor source of information.

Good idea for an article and very interesting concept.

 

Mm, color does have an effect but I'd say picking a favorite color has a stronger effect then picking one you don't like.

If anything stage and music would be more significant. For example, if you don't deal with pressure well then picking Omega Wii Fit Studio or the Garden of Hope with some casual music would help you calm down, while then going to Omega Mario Galaxy while fighting in outer space with freakin' Overlord Jerginga: Planet Buster Form blaring in the background would probably fry your nerves. Or vice-versa if you like pressure.

I'm sure we've all experienced the effects of atmosphere, after all. You can't really call it pseudo science. Color in of itself is a part of atmosphere. But to say you will react in one defined way would be... Incorrect. Usually you'll do your best with your favorite colors, stages and music instead of a perceived "best" of any of those. Heck, this often applies to characters too. Once you factor in the whole "I suck at good characters/stages" mentality that'll explain most anybody's preferences.

Ah, but I ramble. I love looking at the science behind the human brain and other science-y things like that, and especially explaining it to others. If we can get more articles like this (hopefully with some harder facts behind it) that'd be grand.

 

To everyone saying this is way too far-fetched or probably doesn't have any effect:
Its been proven time and time again in studies - both scientific and non-scientific - that it does have an impact. I believe Riot (guys who run League of Legends) have done tonnes of tests with colours with very large sample sizes and seen consistent results. I think its naive to think that colours do not impact our psychology an the way we play to be honest.

 

I think one question that I think is quite more important. Let's say your playing a ditto and your opponent refuses you to use your color. How much does that effects you, that you have to use another color than your primary?

Otherwise I'm very split between colors and just chose the ones I like the most: Blue CF, Red Sheik, Red Marth, Yellow Yoshi, Original Falco, Green Peach etc.

 

Green is my favorite color. Not really sue where "boredom" came from in it's description...

maybe camping...? Its a boring playstyle to watch and sometimes its boring to do it.

 

Green

• Positive: Harmony, balance, refreshment, rest, restoration, reassurance, equilibrium, peace.

rest

 

I've done a bit of a personal color study myself, and learned there's another layer to this than personality - it ties in with your habits. Specifically, changing my color helped me to change my habits, and it's just because I made myself stop looking at the same visual representation of my character.

I used to solely play dark-blue Yoshi and R.O.B. because I found it easier to identify my opponent on screen, but it also made me more comfortable for some reason (likely for reasons stated above). I found myself getting into a rut and playing out the same bad habits, so I started playing with other colors.

I switched to light-blue, and immediately noticed a difference. Because I made my character look different, I started playing differently and trying new things.

In a similar vein to what's being described above, if I play a match and realize I'm going in too hard and being punished for stupid aggression, I switch to pink. Pink reminds me to play more patiently, to slow down and watch my opponent and play a more defensive game. It works very well in achieving this effect.

 

I find it very sad that Introversion is listed as a negative trait, while extroversion is listed as a positive one.

For example at my job we perfer to hire introvert people because of their enhanced ability to think before they speak. Generally introversive humans also have a lot of desirable personal qualities such as a higher IQ and a way of thinking that is outside the box

 

What if I used the colors

Red
White
Blue

Spoiler

 

rest

"boredom, stagnation"
lol imo Hbox gets camped on worse than anyone else, just watch what happens when he plays Armada... Armada can just camp with lasers and and dashdance, plus that actually does damage.

 

Char Aznable approves.

 

While the data was expected to be split much closer to the middle it turned out that the team in red won 5% more matches than the team in blue.

Still sounds to be in the expected margin, tbh.

I don't mean to sound too skeptical, but the effect of a color on virtual competitions has got to be negligible, especially since not everyone perceives colors the same (e.g. eyesight deficiency in various degrees), and the "meaning" of color varies with the culture. Red may be a proud, bellicose color in the West, but for example, China finds it a more suitable color for celebration, like wedding dresses.

And in the case of Smash, everyone is seeing the same screen. Everyone is seeing both the red team and the blue team, so which one you happen to be controlling should hardly matter.

By the way, I favor green outfits and team color whenever possible.

 

I was waiting for a write-up like this. Very well done. Thank you!

 

Well...
I play pink after originally using black then green,
pink after using brown,
red after using red/white,
white ,
largely purple/white (OoT alt), I didn't like the shade of blonde on her LBW alt
Poke'Center hat which should count as pink,
magenta (galacta knight) which I guess is a mix of pink, red and purple, originally used white
purple (classic shiny), originally used gold
red after first using pink then gray,
the alt which has darker shades of blue and yellow, used to use black
and red after using the grey/white alt...

Most of my characters are zoning, hit/run or bait/punish...
And overall I play defensively...
Considering my rushdown game is bad, I play a paced, advancing game and I don't do very well in ffa matches unless I'm able to control half the stage, I think everything remarkably checks out :O

 

Well...
I play pink after originally using black then green,
pink after using brown,
red after using red/white,
white ,
largely purple/white (OoT alt), I didn't like the shade of blonde on her LBW alt
Poke'Center hat which should count as pink,
magenta (galacta knight) which I guess is a mix of pink, red and purple, originally used white
purple (classic shiny), originally used gold
red after first using pink then gray,
the alt which has darker shades of blue and yellow, used to use black
and red after using the grey/white alt...

Most of my characters are zoning, hit/run or bait/punish...
And overall I play defensively...
Considering my rushdown game is bad, I play a paced, advancing game and I don't do very well in ffa matches unless I'm able to control half the stage, I think everything remarkably checks out :O

What rundown game?