Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances

TLDR

Existing research reports inconsistent findings on how color affects cognitive task performance, with some studies favoring blue/green over red and others the opposite. This study aims to reconcile these discrepancies regarding color effects on cognition. The authors provide process evidence that activation of alternative motivations mediates the influence of color on task performance. Red induces avoidance motivation and improves detail‑oriented performance, while blue promotes approach motivation and enhances creative performance, and these effects generalize to product design and persuasive messaging and occur outside conscious awareness.

Abstract

Existing research reports inconsistent findings with regard to the effect of color on cognitive task performances. Some research suggests that blue or green leads to better performances than red; other studies record the opposite. Current work reconciles this discrepancy. We demonstrate that red (versus blue) color induces primarily an avoidance (versus approach) motivation (study 1, n = 69) and that red enhances performance on a detail-oriented task, whereas blue enhances performance on a creative task (studies 2 and 3, n = 208 and 118). Further, we replicate these results in the domains of product design (study 4, n = 42) and persuasive message evaluation (study 5, n = 161) and show that these effects occur outside of individuals' consciousness (study 6, n = 68). We also provide process evidence suggesting that the activation of alternative motivations mediates the effect of color on cognitive task performances.