Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 323; no. 5918; pp. 1226 - 1229
• Main Authors: Mehta, Ravi, (Juliet) Zhu, Rui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 27.02.2009; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Anagrams; avoidance behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Bricks; Cognition; Cognition. Intelligence; Cognitive ability; Color; Colors; consciousness; Creativity; Experimental psychology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Mental Processes; Mental Recall; Motivation; Motivation research; Peacefulness; Performance enhancing substances; Product design; Propriety; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reasoning. Problem solving; Task Performance and Analysis; Young Adult; Human; Motivation; Color; Cognition; Psychological effect; Experimental study; Performance; Creativity

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 (ve...