Observation
Color It Relevant
When searching for a book, the color of the cover matters a lot. Sure, you might know the title, but locating “that book with the red cover and white letters on the shelf” is easier than locating The Betty Crocker Cookbook. Once you find the book and start reading it, though, the cover color no longer matters.
Or does it?
Recent research in Psychological Science has demonstrated that drawing attention to a color can prime people to notice objects related to that color, no matter what task they do afterward. Study volunteers completed a Stroop task to encourage them to focus on colors, and then they did a semantic-judgment task in which they were presented with two words and asked to determine if the second word named an animal.
Volunteers who completed the Stroop task responded faster and more accurately to color-related word pairs (e.g., emerald and cucumber) than did volunteers who completed the semantic judgment task first. The results suggest that color can remain salient even when focusing on color is no longer relevant to the task at hand.
So if you pick up that red Betty Crocker Cookbook, don’t be surprised if the first recipe that appeals to you is for cherry pie.
Yee, E., Ahmed, S., & Thompson-Schill, S. (2012). Colorless Green Ideas (Can) Prime Furiously Psychological Science DOI: 10.1177/0956797611430691
Comments
I used to give a talk about the psychology of color. I wonder if my info is still “relevant?”
Green is healing. Green lights are used in surgery rooms.
Red stimulates the appetites. Red table clothes used in high class restaurants.
Orange is friendly. Used in fast food restaurants.
Yellow mean move fast. Used in public bathrooms.
Blue is reliable and honest, used in banks.
Black & white represent authority. Wear when presenting your paper. Wear red scarf or beads to give color to your face.
Hot pink in juveniles detention cells cause violent teenagers to fall asleep in 15 minutes.
APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.
Please login with your APS account to comment.