Color and Psychological Functioning

TLDR

Color is a ubiquitous perceptual experience, yet little is known about its influence on affect, cognition, and behavior, underscoring the need for rigorous scientific work on color psychology. The authors developed a general model of color and psychological functioning and proposed a hypothesis about red’s influence in achievement contexts. They constructed this model and used it to generate a hypothesis regarding red’s effect in achievement contexts. Experiments show that a brief glimpse of red triggers avoidance motivation and impairs intellectual performance without conscious awareness or intention.

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.