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This story about sports referees from Wired Magazine reveals a few interesting tidbits about how our senses affect our judgment — even in situations where the standard for judgment is supposedly clearly defined, and more or less objective. The salient bits:

1. The cheering of the home crowd affects the number of fouls called against the home team — more cheering, fewer fouls.
2. Our brains compensate for the lag in processing visual information by shifting objects in the direction they are moving. So we’re predisposed to see that baseline shot as out, even if it’s in.
3. Refs watching Tae kwon do footage awarded more points to fighters wearing red than to those wearing blue — even after the uniform colors were digitally switched.

The full (very brief) article is here.

If extraneous sensory information like cheering and uniform color can alter something as ostensibly cut-and-dried as a referee’s calls, how might it affect the way your brand is perceived?