Color and Psychological Functioning

Abstract

Color is a ubiquitous perceptual experience, yet little scientific information about the influence of color on affect, cognition, and behavior is available. Accordingly, we have developed a general model of color and psychological functioning, which we present in this article. We also describe a hypothesis derived from this model regarding the influence of red in achievement contexts. In addition, we report a series of experiments demonstrating that a brief glimpse of red evokes avoidance motivation and undermines intellectual performance, and that it has these effects without conscious awareness or intention. We close with thoughts on the need for rigorous scientific work on color psychology.

Colorful brains: 14years of display practice in functional neuroimaging

“…Our trend analysis shows that the neuroimaging community is increasingly aware of this inappropriate inclination towards "over-colorization": use of newer software systems (like BrainVoyager) or newer versions of SMP goes along with a more frequent display of explicit color scales, and SPM5 supports the use of single colors for pinpointing on activated regions, where arguably only a labeling function was intended by the authors. This laudable trend to prevent the dissemination of "placebic" information (Trout, 2008) should be fostered as it diminishes the seductive force of color, which typically operates outside an observer's awareness (Elliot and Maier, 2007).…”

“…They highlight, decorate, symbolize, regulate, soothe and warn. They mediate feelings and emotions but also influence cognition (Elliot and Maier, 2007). Perceptual illusions make us "see" non-existing colors (Benham, 1894), judge two identical colors as different or perceive different colors as identical (Wong, 2010).…”

“…Second, the perceptual impact of colors is dependent on culture and varies with their perceived ecological valence (Palmer and Schloss, 2010). These subtle, but influential factors of color perception are largely outside an observer's awareness (Elliot and Maier, 2007). Thus, the understanding between illustrator and viewer, so crucial in the communication process, is implicit at best.…”

Anger as “seeing red”: Evidence for a perceptual association

“…Harmed individuals bleed and blood is red when it exits the body. It is not likely a coincidence, then, that red is used to signal danger in more symbolic contexts -such as red stop signs, stop lights, or fire trucks (Elliot & Maier, 2007). It is equally understandable, from this perspective, why anger metaphors frequently reference redness (e.g., "seeing red"), why red is viewed as angry in many cultures (Needham, 1973), and why the present experimental results involving anger categorizations were so robust in nature.…”

“…Anger as "Seeing Red" 24 (e.g., Elliot & Maier, 2007). It would be informative to the social psychology literature to determine whether perceptual redness cues result in higher levels of anger, social judgments related to anger, or aggression.…”