Color Rule: Affect Moods and Behaviors
In addition to using color to affect emotions, you can actually explore ways in which color affects how people act and react to information. Research in the way color affects physical behaviors is a relatively new area of study and researchers aren’t always sure which colors will affect which actions. Still, one thing is certain: color does, indeed, have a physical reaction in people and it can cause them to act and react differently. Review the research studies below and consider how you might apply any variety of colors in professional ambiances (like formal presentations, conferences, events and booths, and so forth) to affect consumer behavior and audience reactions.
Eating On Blue Plates May Help You Lose Weight
Researchers Brian Wansink and Oert van Ittersum from Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab discovered that when the color of food has a low contrast with the color of the plate on which it is served (for example, pasta with alfredo sauce on a white or yellow plate), people will regularly eat up to 30% more food! Because almost no natural food is the color blue, just about any food will contrast with the plate’s color, likely causing people to eat less food. Read their study here.
Painting Prison Walls Pink May Help Calm Inmates
After conducting several experiments on the affects of looking at certain colors (and how the colors affected heart rate and muscle strength), Alexandar Schauss convinced the directors at a violent naval correctional institute in 1979 to paint the prison cells a specific color of pink (now known as drunk tank pink or Baker-Miller pink). Amazingly enough, the pink was so powerful that, over 150 days after the painting of the walls, it was reported that “no incidents of erratic or hostile behavior” had been reported. This research later fascinated Hayden Fry, University of Iowa’s head football coach, who had the visiting team’s locker rooms painted pink in an attempt to weaken his opponents before the game!
Women Wearing a Red Dress May Cause Men to Spend More Money on Them
Researchers Andrew Elliot and Daniela Niesta, in an article published in the ‘Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,’ found that men—when presented photos of the same woman with different clothes—repeatedly identified the woman wearing red clothing as more attractive. In fact, men indicated that they would be willing to spend twice as much money on a woman wearing red as they would with the same woman wearing another color. Red has been shown to impact perceptions of dominance and research in Olympic athlete and English soccer team uniforms showed that teams and athletes wearing red were statistically more likely to win matches and events, presumably because red may make people feel more aggressive, it may subconsciously intimidate opponents, or it may cause referees to unknowingly favor red teams. While causation isn’t clear, the Red Effect has been proven from many angles.
Yellow May Cause Your Baby to Cry More or You to Lose Your Temper
Carlton Wagner, researcher and interior designer at the Wagner Institute for Color Research, found that yellow agitates the aggression part of our brain. When babies are exposed to too much yellow, he concluded, they are more likely to cry. And, he found, temperamental people tend to lose their cool more in yellow spaces. Yellow can be overstimulating and, when exposed to a lot of light, can irritate the eyes and have a headache-inducing effect. Yellow isn’t always bad, but it should be used purposefully and in moderation.