When Jannik Sinner lost his Australian Open tennis semi-finals last night, I wondered how much his (in my view) dreadfully depressing clothes contributed to his loss? There is no doubt that Novak Djokovic played well and there was little difference between them in ability, but I felt that Sinner’s clothes made him look ill – and a little ‘weak’.
This might seem a trite subject, but I felt really depressed when I looked at Sinner and was surprised that he could still play so well when he looked so bad! There are currently 1800 publications in the scientific literature on the psychological research relating to colours and emotions and I will refer to only one recent paper entitled “Do we feel colours”, which reviews 128 years of research linking colours and emotions!
Is it likely that his appearance also affected the crowd? Crowds are very influenced by intangible parameters such as the ‘apparent energy’ of the contestants – and it is frequently observed that crowds can raise a player or team’s performance. So, his clothing might have also reduced his crowd support!
Nor surprisingly, from the 128 years of study, there is quite a bit of sound science underlying the psychological effects of color in humans and a huge amount in the animal world. Plants, of course, have evolved their colors to attract pollinators.
So, last night (and in his previous match), Sinner wore an outfit in a tone of brown that I thought was very unflattering to his pale complexion. In colour psychology, brown signifies stability, warmth, reliability, and earthiness. This is wonderful in a nurturing environment but surely not so good when you are trying to play against a highly competitive sporting opponent? Brown evokes feelings of security, comfort, and nature. This makes brown a great colour for trustworthy brands, especially food products, but in excess, it can feel boring, bland and dull. It is a colour that is associated with a strong need for belonging and certainly not a colour for combat!
Although brown is associated with resilience, dependability, security, and safety, it is also associated with feelings of loneliness, sadness and isolation. To my mind, during all the matches that he wore this outfit, Sinner looked lonely, sad and depressed! Unfortunately, he is probably even more depressed now as the match was very long and very close.
I thought the greenish brown made him look quite ill and I think even this effect of the colour might have given Djokovic a psychological advantage!
Colour and competitive sporting performance
Researchers of human colour have paid some attention to the influence of colour on sporting performance. This has been strongly influenced by studies in the animal world where colourful animal displays often elicit avoidance or withdrawal behaviour. Such ‘badges of dominance’ can help other animals of the same or different species – or gender within the same species – to assess the competitive ability of their opponent. This avoids many possible escalated aggressive encounters, and it is not only ‘natural’ stimuli that have this effect but animals whose colour signals are augmented by experimenters are also much more likely to win contests.
So, does colour influence a person’s chance of winning in a sporting event? It has been demonstrated that in male sports, testosterone levels are associated with an active choice of red clothing for competitive events and that in some studies, teams wearing red were more likely to win. Nevertheless, there are very few scientific studies undertaken and apart from Taekwondo, where both blue and red ‘protectors’ were associated with greater success, individual participant sports do not seem to have been considered.
So perhaps I am imagining this association? I could be but I admit that last night I was literally surprised every time Sinner won a difficult rally, and I (if asked) would advise him – and all other sportspeople who have the choice – to wear brighter, more positive colours.
References:
Jonauskaite D & Mohr C (2025) Do we feel colours? A systematic review of 128 years of psychological research linking colours and emotions. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 32: 1457-1486 https://doi.org/10.3758/s14323-024-02615-z
Rowland HM, Burriss RP. (2017) Human colour in mate choice and competition. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 372: 20160350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0350