title: Blue or red? Exploring the effect of color on cognitive task performances.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, 2053 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada.
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.forename: Rui Juliet
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003116:Color; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D011939:Mental Recall; D009042:Motivation; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult