Daily Science Dose

Or create…paint your room blue.

There really is science all around us. Even something as seemingly innocuous as the color of the room you are in or the background of that website you were just on before hitting this one is a rich study in perception and how we can be cognitively-steered by those primary colors of red and blue.

Maybe Matisse was in a blue studio when he painted this Red Room...

Studies in the past have looked at how color affects human cognition, and for the most part, many studies contradicted each other. And when studies contradict each other, it is difficult to reach a consensus among scientists and more studies are needed. In the case of blue versus red, some studies found that red fostered cognition (or perception) while others showed the opposite. What’s a researcher to do?

Break down cognition into more specific tasks, and then see how red affects them. And that is just what Rui (Juliet) Zhu, a consumer psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada did. She and a helpful grad student (the unsung heroes of science) tested undergrads (the unsung human lab rats of science) on different tasks using different colors as backgrounds on computer screens. Those tasks that involved careful concentration were more accurately completed when the background color was red.

However, more creative tasks, such as coming up with different uses of everyday items, saw better results when the background color was blue.

Wait, how do you judge “creativity”? Well, in the case of Zhu’s study, she put together a panel of students to decide what answers were more creative than other answers.

Zhu thinks the results reflect the different associations conjured by red and blue: Thanks to its connection to stop signs, red ink, and blood, red alerts us to danger and mistakes, signaling the need to be vigilant. Blue, on the other hand, may put people in a more creative mindset because of its more tranquil associations with sea and sky.

The practical implications of the study could be far-ranging, says Kathleen Vohs, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. For example, the researchers showed that volunteers who viewed two versions of a fake camera ad–one that featured detailed images of the camera’s features and accessories, and one that featured more creative photos (see picture)–rated the first ad more favorably when it appeared on a red background and the second one more favorably when it appeared on a blue background. — Science Magazine

So, wait, all of this research money is just to make advertising more effective? Yes, but no. The findings could be better utilized for color schemes in buildings. You know, interior decor really needs a good strong foundation in science…

Oh, I kid. Kind of. But my next question is…will pink make me only half-concentrate?

Another researcher, who I want to call Zhu’s Professor Wernstrum (for all you Futurama fans), says that though the research is interesting, he wonders if it is the color of the backgrounds on the computers used, or the brightness and saturation of said color that produces the results.

red, blue, color, perception, cognition, human, study, research, creativity, effects of color, interior decor, advertising, Futurama