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.

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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.

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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!

 

What rundown game?

I mean I can't play characters like Fox very well if that's what you meant. I'm confused what you meant by 'rundown,' sorry.

 

Next up is Music Counterpicking, right?

 

I always thought colors had something to do with it Smash mindset, especially after seeing Acestarthe3rd acknowledge his viewers' acknowledgement of how he plays more calmly with blue Rosa and him playing more aggressively with the whiter and red one. This also explains why l enjoy the black alts so much.

This also explains why so many tryhards on FG use the golden alts of EVERY character they use. Looking at you, Cap.

 

I feel like, even if this doesn't turn out to be completely true, you always have to worry about the placebo effect. For example, if you think playing red will make you more aggressive, then your belief in that concept will make you play more aggressive. I don't really think it matters whether it's true or not.

Besides, even if it doesn't make any difference, it couldn't hurt to try out a different color every now and again, just to see if you see any change.

 

A YouTuber named Smash Highlights has a series called Smash Science as well. He usually compares different stats from all fighters.

 

I use shadow Lugia alt mewtwo, who I almost main at this point, which has the primary color as purple so the purple having a negative in inferiority works a lot in that scenario

 

How have tons of scientific studies repeatedly come up with similar results then? I mean, I linked to several of them in the article. the cold hard science and all.

I know this post is a little old now but there are numerous other factors that these instances can be attributed to.
For instance, many young males drive red cars because the color is very flashy. Its a vibrant color that rarely shows up in the natural world and so it draws lots of attention. Red cars are often visually perceived to be faster than they really are, and yet they have a tendency to have a higher rate of accidents and instances of being pulled over by police that is not statistically insignificant. What is actually at play here is NOT that the color red itself causes these things, but rather that like-minded people are drawn to it.
In other words, these differences in the effectiveness of colors in various sports and so on is actually attributed to the individuals flocking to the colors that best represent themselves. A red team is perceived to be more aggressive because more aggressive people tend to choose that color rather than the color actually granting them superior strength or scaring the opposition.

Another example is that pink has only been considered a feminine color in the past 200 years or so while various shades of blue were considered feminine. The reasoning is that masculinity was perceived to be a hot a fiery energy while femininity is to remain collected and balanced.
Perceptions on the meanings of color have not only changed considerably over the years, but even today most places the world over don't actually equate the same colors to the same psychological principals.