The Psychology Of Color

Psychology Of Color: Color psychology studies how hues shape mood, appetite, purchases and snap judgments about people, and while some effects like red boosting perceived dominance hold up, many popular claims rest on shaky or culture specific evidence.

Baker-Miller Pink: In 1979 a US Navy correctional center painted cells this bubblegum shade after researcher Alexander Schauss claimed it calmed aggression, but later studies failed to replicate the effect.

Russell Hill: His 2005 study of the Athens Olympics found boxers and wrestlers randomly assigned red outfits won more often than those in blue, especially in close matches.

Norbert Hagemann: When he digitally swapped the colors of taekwondo fighters' gear in fight videos, referees awarded more points to whichever fighter appeared in red.

Andrew Elliot: His 2008 research found men rated women as more attractive when photographed against or wearing red, and his earlier work showed glimpsing red before a test lowered scores.

Mark Frank: His 1988 study with Thomas Gilovich found NFL and NHL teams in black uniforms drew more penalties, and two hockey teams were penalized more right after switching to black.

Buchanan Street: Glasgow installed blue streetlights on this shopping street in 2000 for looks, and reports of falling crime afterward sparked a worldwide fad for blue lighting as a calming tool.

Pantone 448 C: Market researchers crowned this murky olive brown the world's ugliest color, which is exactly why Australia chose it for plain cigarette packaging in 2012.

Tiffany Blue: The jeweler trademarked its robin's egg shade in 1998, and the sight of the little blue box triggers such strong expectations that the color itself is treated as a luxury signal.

Heinz EZ Squirt: Green ketchup launched in 2000 sold millions of bottles as kids loved the novelty, but sales faded fast and it was pulled in 2006, showing color can sell food once but not forever.

Frederic Brochet: In his 2001 Bordeaux experiment, wine students described a white wine dyed red using red wine words like cherry and chicory, fooled entirely by its color.

Charles Spence: The Oxford researcher's lab found the same strawberry dessert tasted about 10 percent sweeter on a white plate than a black one, proof that plates season our food.

Faber Birren: The color consultant to DuPont and the US military helped create industrial safety color codes in the 1940s, claiming well chosen factory colors cut accidents and fatigue.

Isaac Newton: He divided the rainbow into seven colors, adding indigo and orange, partly to match the seven notes of the musical scale.

Brent Berlin: His 1969 study with Paul Kay found languages add color words in a predictable order, starting with dark and light, then red, long before words for blue.

Jonathan Winawer: His 2007 study showed Russian speakers, whose language has separate basic words for light blue and dark blue, could tell those shades apart faster than English speakers.

Earnshaw's Infants' Department: This 1918 trade magazine advised pink for boys and blue for girls, the reverse of today's rule, which only hardened in the United States around the 1940s.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: His 1810 Theory of Colours was one of the first serious attempts to describe the emotional effects of color, calling yellow cheerful and blue a mix of excitement and repose.

Max Luscher: His 1947 Luscher Color Test claimed to reveal personality from which colors you rank highest, and it was sold to corporations for decades despite little scientific support.

Stephen Palmer: His Ecological Valence Theory with Karen Schloss found people like colors linked to things they like, which is why dark yellowish browns associated with rot and waste rank among the least liked.

Anton de Craen: His 1996 review found pill color shapes how drugs feel, with red, yellow and orange pills seen as stimulating and blue and green pills seen as calming.

Harry Sherman: The San Francisco surgeon swapped white operating room linens for spinach green in 1914 to reduce glare and the eerie afterimages surgeons saw after staring at red blood.

Rajesh Bagchi: His 2013 study found online auction bidders facing red backgrounds made bigger, more aggressive bid jumps, while red in negotiations made people offer less.

Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook turned blue largely because its founder is red green colorblind and blue is the color he sees most richly.

Ravi Mehta: His 2009 study in Science found red backgrounds improved detail oriented tasks like proofreading, while blue backgrounds boosted creative tasks like brainstorming.