Submitted on November 28, 2008
Accepted on January 5, 2009
Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances
Ravi Mehta 1 and Rui (Juliet) Zhu 1*
1 Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, 2053 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Rui (Juliet) Zhu , E-mail: juliet.zhu{at}sauder.ubc.ca
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 domains of product design (study 4, n = 42) and persuasive message evaluation (study 5, n = 161), and illustrate 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.
