Blue or red? Exploring the effect of color on cognitive task performances

Mehta, Ravi; Zhu, Juliet

doi:10.1037/e621092012-121

Cited by 24 publications

(38 citation statements)

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“…A broader scope of conceptual attention has been posited to bolster RAT performance by enhancing the likelihood that the cognitively inaccessible solution words will be retrieved from LTM (Bowden & Jung-Beeman, 2003; Martindale, 1995; Schooler & Melcher, 1995; see also, Seibt & Förster, 2004). Consistent with predictions, Mehta and Zhu (2009) found that participants exposed to the color blue, relative to red or white, correctly solved more RAT items.…”

Section: Implicit Affective Cues and Attentional Tuningsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Notably, in several of their studies, Mehta and Zhu (2009) also conceptually replicated the findings of Elliot, Maier, and their colleagues regarding the attention-moderating effects of the color red. For instance, in a separate between-participants condition of the abovementioned RAT study, Mehta and Zhu administered a proofreading task in which participants had to judge whether pairs of identical or slightly different names or addresses were the same or not.…”

Section: Implicit Affective Cues and Attentional Tuningsupporting

confidence: 54%

“…This suggestion was recently tested by Mehta and Zhu (2009), who observed that the color blue is typically associated with peace and tranquility (as in the common expression, “nothing but blue skies ahead”), and should therefore serve as a “benign situation” cue. In an extensive series of studies, they have shown that exposure to blue enhances creativity, which as discussed earlier, may be seen as profiting from an expanded breadth of conceptual attention.…”

Section: Implicit Affective Cues and Attentional Tuningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an extensive series of studies, they have shown that exposure to blue enhances creativity, which as discussed earlier, may be seen as profiting from an expanded breadth of conceptual attention. For instance, Mehta and Zhu (2009) found that participants who were incidentally exposed to a blue, relative to a red or white, computer background generated more creative uses for a brick, controlling for sheer fluency (cf. Friedman and Förster, 2000; 2002).…”

Section: Implicit Affective Cues and Attentional Tuningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mehta and Zhu (2009) also tested the notion that safety-related colors expand the breadth of conceptual selection using a Remote Associates Test (RAT; Mednick, 1962). On each trial of this classic insight task, participants are presented with a set of words and asked to identify the single word with which these initial words are associated (e.g., SHELF READ END; Answer : BOOK).…”

Section: Implicit Affective Cues and Attentional Tuningmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Implicit affective cues and attentional tuning: An integrative review.

Friedman¹,

Förster²

2010

Psychological Bulletin

280

288

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A large and growing number of studies support the notion that arousing positive emotional states expand, and that arousing negative states constrict, the scope of attention on both the perceptual and conceptual levels. However, these studies have predominantly involved the manipulation or measurement of conscious emotional experiences (e.g., subjective feelings of happiness or anxiety). This raises the question: Do cues that are merely associated with benign versus threatening situations, but that do not elicit conscious feelings of positive or negative emotional arousal, independently expand or contract attentional scope? Integrating theoretical advances in affective neuroscience, positive psychology, and social cognition, it is proposed that rudimentary intero-and exteroceptive stimuli may indeed become associated with the onset of arousing positive or negative emotional states and/or with appraisals that the environment is benign or threatening and thereby come to moderate the scope of attention in the absence of conscious emotional experience. Specifically, implicit "benign situation" cues are posited to broaden, and implicit "threatening situation" cues to narrow, the range of both perceptual as well as conceptual attentional selection. An extensive array of research findings involving a diverse set of such implicit affective cues (e.g., enactment of approach and avoidance behaviors, incidental exposure to colors signaling safety versus danger) is marshaled in support of this proposition. Potential alternative explanations for and moderators of these attentional tuning effects, as well as their higher-level neuropsychological underpinnings, are also discussed along with prospective extensions to a range of other situational cues and domains of social cognitive processing.Decades of research have suggested that affective experiences, such as emotional feelings and moods, influence not only the content, but the structure of thought, shaping how individuals think as opposed to merely

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Section: Implicit Affective Cues and Attentional Tuningsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Implicit Affective Cues and Attentional Tuningsupporting

confidence: 54%

Section: Implicit Affective Cues and Attentional Tuningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implicit Affective Cues and Attentional Tuningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implicit Affective Cues and Attentional Tuningmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Implicit affective cues and attentional tuning: An integrative review.

Friedman¹,

Förster²

2010

Psychological Bulletin

280

288

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Asymmetric effect of context‐specific color priming on interpretation of ambiguous news articles

Choi

Kil-Jae

Banerjee

2019

J of Consumer Behaviour

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In the context of reading a news article as a source to predict the stock price of a company, people's interpretation of the article was biased by the color used as its background. We found that this bias was (a) asymmetric, (b) strengthened with ambiguity, and (c) context specific. First, the color‐priming effect was asymmetric. In Studies 1 and 2, the readers' interpretation was positively biased when the article was presented on a background color that signals up (green in the United States and red in South Korea). The interpretation, however, was not negatively biased when it was presented on a background color that signals down (red in the United States and blue in South Korea). Second, the effect was strengthened with ambiguity. Study 3 showed that the bias was stronger when the article describing the stock price was ambiguous than when it was unambiguous. Third, the effect appeared to be a consequence of the context‐specific experience of an individual. Study 4 showed that the bias was stronger among those who recognized the meaning of a particular color in the context of their stock market.

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Promoting effects of color‐text congruence in banner advertising

Zhang

Bao

Xiao

2018

Color Research & Application

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Previous studies have found that the congruence among elements in an advertisement can enhance advertising efficiency. However, the influence of congruence between color and text, two important elements of ads, has not been directly investigated. The present study aims to investigate how color‐text congruence affects advertising effectiveness in capturing attention and generating favorable attitudes. A total of 94 students from a college in China participated in an experiment using a within‐subjects design. Participants were presented with ads either matched in color and text (congruent condition) or not (incongruent condition). Attention and attitudes were measured by eye‐tracking and subjective rating, respectively. The results demonstrated that participants paid more attention and gave more positive ratings to ads in the congruent condition than those in the incongruent condition. In addition, the present study separately investigates the concrete versus abstract meanings of colors. This distinction bridges complementary theories in contemporary color psychology.

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Blue or red? Exploring the effect of color on cognitive task performances

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Implicit affective cues and attentional tuning: An integrative review.

Implicit affective cues and attentional tuning: An integrative review.

Asymmetric effect of context‐specific color priming on interpretation of ambiguous news articles

Promoting effects of color‐text congruence in banner advertising

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