A blog by Prof. Dante Pirouz, a consumer behavior researcher at the Ivey Business School - University of Western Ontario, who specializes in understanding why our brain and body drive us to consume what we do and what we consumers can do about it.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Recent Consumer Behavior Paper on Blue and Red Effects on Cognitive Tasks
Ravi Mehta and Rui (Juliet) Zhu*
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.
More on Red
Red Enhances Men's Attraction To Women, Psychological Study Reveals
ScienceDaily (2008-10-28) -- Psychologists have added color -- literally and figuratively -- to the age-old question of what attracts men to women. Psychologists have demonstrated that the color red makes men feel more amorous toward women. And men are unaware of the role the color plays in their attraction. ... > read full article
The Color Red - More
Research On The Color Red Shows Definite Impact On Achievement
ScienceDaily (2007-03-01) -- The color red can affect how people function: Red means danger and commands us to stop in traffic. Researchers at the University of Rochester have now found that red also can keep us from performing our best on tests. ... > read full article
Color Red Bias
Red All Over: How The Color Red Affects A Referee's Judgment
ScienceDaily (2008-08-10) -- A new study has found that choosing the color red for a uniform in competitive sports can actually affect the referee's split-second decision-making ability and even promote a scoring bias. ... > read full article