Trustworthy Blue or Untrustworthy Red: The Influence of Colors on Trust

Abstract

In marketing practice, blue, followed by red, is the most used color in brand logo designs. Academic studies have shown that blue is related more to trust than red, but extant empirical results are somewhat inconclusive. This article further explores this notion using both implicit and explicit methods to test the influence of blue and red on trust. The results across three studies consistently show that blue increases trust more than red, contributing to the current literature by providing solid empirical evidence of the relationship between colors and trust and insight for brand managers into brand logo design and redesign.