This study tested the effects of red and blue in a shopping‐related context. Red and blue were selected because of their opposite color properties. Prior color research has shown that red is perceived as negative and tense as well as physically arousing. Blue, on the other hand, has been identified as calm, cool, and positive. Two laboratory experiments were conducted. In both experiments, retail environments were simulated using predominately red or blue colors. Both experiments corroborate the differential effects of red and blue that prior research suggested. Specifically, more positive retail outcomes occurred in blue rather than red environments. More simulated purchases, fewer purchase postponements, and a stronger inclination to shop and browse were found in blue retail environments. The second experiment helps to identify a plausible explanation to color effects. The results indicate that the affective perception of color rather than the arousal dimension of color may be responsible for the outcome. The positive effects of blue and the negative perception of red may have influenced the results. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Charitable contribution requests including legitimization of paltry contributions or a large anchorpoint are examined. Results show that a large anchorpoint increases average contributions, legitimization of paltry contributions enhances compliance rates, and the combined use of a large anchorpoint and legitimization of paltry contributions does not significantly alter compliance or contribution sizes.A large body of literature has been devoted to the study of influences on compliance with requests for help, but researchers have focused little attention upon correspondingdegrees of help provided by compliant subjects. Because the effectiveness of any campaign to solicit help depends upon compliance rates and magnitudes of help, the focus of this article is upon both aspects. Compliance rates and degrees of response to requests including large anchorpoints, or legitimization of minima! assistance, or both, are compared with responses to simple, unspecified requests for monetary donations in a charitable solicitation context. RESPONSE MAGNITUDESAfter exposure to requests for a contribution, each potential contributor probably forms a perception of some minimally socially acceptable anchorpoint against which candidate contribution amounts are compared. Amounts greater than that minimum anchor are regarded as generous, and amounts smaller than that minimum are regarded as unacceptable. As Ihe magnitude of that lower anchorpoint increases, the magnitude of contribution increases, but the probability of contribution decreases. If an anchorpoint is not included in the requestor's presentation, then the requestee infers an anchorpoint from prior experience.Large, specific requests should increase response magnitudes, because such requests provide a maxi-

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Two meta-analyses of attitudes toward advertising by professionals are presented, which allow formulation of generalizations from 10 years’ research spanning the time since the relaxation of professional advertising restrictions first was discussed and subsequently implemented. Results suggest that differences in attitudes across professions may be attributable to the importance, heterogeneity, and assess-ability of quality levels; that exposure to professional advertising produces attitude changes in favor of increased advertising by professionals; and that consumers are more favorably disposed toward such advertising than are professionals.