For the first time, players will be allowed to wear the lowest number of all - zero. SPITZER: This year's NFL season has yet another twist. And this is happening all the time, unbeknownst to us. And then they use that information, and that forms expectations that shape our perception. SHAMS: Our brains keep track of the statistics and the regularities in our environment. The 20-pound bag of rice is bigger than the 5-pound bag. SPITZER: Shams says what could be at work is a learned association between high numbers and large size. SHAMS: And we got the same results, and we realized that the effect is actually very robust. So to make sure that that wasn't affecting people's perceptions, she tested out numbers that had the same digits but reversed - say, 18 versus 81. Of course, some numerals are wider than others. Even a tiny difference mattered - 17 was seen as slimmer than 19. She says lower numbers were strongly associated with the perception that the player was thinner. She showed people images of football players of various body types in a random jersey number and had them rate the players' slenderness versus huskiness. So because there was no prior research, we decided to test it ourselves in my lab. LADAN SHAMS: So that was just conjecture, a hypothesis. The way the brain works is that, over time, you might associate smaller numbers with smaller objects. SEIFERT: She was very clear that she didn't have any research to back it up, but that it would make a lot of sense. Do people associate lower numbers with swifter, svelter athletes? He contacted a UCLA psychology professor named Ladan Shams. SPITZER: Seifert wondered whether this was a real thing. A lot of them said they just thought they looked better or thinner. ![]() KEVIN SEIFERT: In talking to some of the players who did it, many of them kept talking about how they felt like they were faster in a number that was smaller. Kevin Seifert, a staff writer for ESPN, did a quick census and found that nearly 80% of NFL wide receivers had made the switch. Within a few years, a ton of them had chosen the lower numbers. Then, in 2004, the league changed the rules and allowed them to instead pick a number between 10 and 19. GABRIEL SPITZER, BYLINE: Wide receivers used to only wear numbers in the 80s. NPR's Gabriel Spitzer says a new psychological study may help explain why. Football is a numbers game, and there's been a shift underway in the numbers on players' jerseys. ![]() Today at the University of Kentucky, 18 is coveted and worn as a badge of honor.The NFL season gets underway today when the Detroit Lions visit the Kansas City Chiefs. After the jerseys were divvied out in a piranha feeding frenzy type situation, there was just one QB acceptable number that remained on the table. I moved to the back of the line so my vainer teammates could fight for their aesthetic preference. Decades before dual numbers and recruiting decisions were being based off numerical promises, long-time UK equipment manager Tom Kalinowski randomly handed out numbers/jerseys to incoming freshmen in an assembly line type of operation at the start of training camp. How I came to wear the now-famous number did not develop from some dramatic circumstance. Truth be known unlike its latest owner Boom Williams, I never rushed for a touchdown in Commonwealth Stadium. ![]() I am as Kentucky-country as catfish and cornbread but was never mentioned with the same reverence as home-state hero Jacob Tamme.
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