I just got back from the Intl Jewellery London (IJL) show, where I
was showing the Knew Concepts saw for Sutton Tools. While there,
several people asked me about my reason for the color Red on the saw
frames. I had originally come across the reference long before I
chose the color of the saws, and it seemed to work well. I went back
online and googled the references and here is one of them for the
skeptics out there:
What color is your work? Red helps accuracy, blue boosts creativity
Trying to improve your performance at work or kick-start that novel
you want to write? Maybe it’s time to consider the color of your
walls or your screen saver.
Trying to improve your performance at work or kick-start that novel
you want to write? Maybe it’s time to consider the color of your
walls or your screen saver.
If a new study is any guide, the color red can make people’s work
more accurate, but blue can make people more creative.
In the study, published online Thursday in the journal Science,
researchers at the University of British Columbia conducted tests
with 600 people to see how cognitive performance varies when people
see red or blue.
Different backgrounds
Participants performed tasks in which words or images were displayed
against red, blue or neutral backgrounds on computer screens.
Red groups did better on tests of recall and attention to detail,
such as remembering words or checking spelling and punctuation.
Blue groups did better on tests requiring invention and imagination:
coming up with creative uses for a brick or creating toys from
collections of shapes.
“If you’re talking about wanting enhanced memory for something like
proofreading skills, then a red color should be used,” said Juliet
Zhu, an assistant professor of marketing at the university’s
business school, who conducted the studies with Ravi Mehta, a
doctoral student.
Brainstorming blue For “a brainstorming session for a new product or
coming up with a new solution to fight child obesity or teenage
smoking,then you should get people into a blue room.”
Whether color can color performance or emotions has long fascinated
scientists, not to mention advertisers, sports teams and
restaurateurs.
Consider the Olympic uniform study, in which anthropologists at
Durham University in England found that athletes in the 2004
Olympics who wore red instead of bluein boxing, tae kwon do,
Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling won 60 percent of the
time. The researchers suggested that red, for athletes, as for
animals, subconsciously symbolizes dominance.
Perhaps a similarly primal effect was afoot in a 2008 study led by
Andrew Elliot at the University of Rochester, in whichmen considered
women photographed against red backgrounds or wearing redshirts more
attractive, although not necessarily more likable or intelligent.
In cognitive realms, experts say colors may affect performance
because of the mood they transmit.
“When things go wrong or when you feel that the situation you are in
is problematic, you are more likely to pay attention to detail,
which helps you with processing tasks but interferes with creative
types of things,” said Norbert Schwarz, a psychology professor at
the University of Michigan. By contrast, “people in a happy mood are
more creative and less analytic.”
Many people link red to problematic things, such as emergencies or
X’s on failing tests, experts say. Such “associations to red " stop,
fire, alarm, warning " can be activated withouta person’s awareness,
and then influence what they are thinking about ordoing,” said John
Bargh, a psychology professor at Yale.
“Blue seems a weaker effect than red, but blue skies, blue water are
calm and positive, and so that effect makes sense, too.”
While Elliot praised the Science study, he said blue’s positive
emotional associations were considered less consistent than red’s
negative ones.
Intensity, brightness
It may also make a difference whether the color dominates a person’s
view, as on a computer screen, or is part of what the person sees.
Elliot said that in the Science study, it was possible color
brightness or intensity had an effect.
That may explain why theresults of some studies have been mixed.
Some found no effect from colorbut used mostly pastels.
One found that students taking tests did better on blue paper than
red, but Schwarz said the study used a depressing blue and an upbeat
red.
In results that appear to align with the Science study’s theory that
red makes people more cautious and detail-oriented, Elliot found
that people shown red on a test cover before an IQ test did worse
than those shown green or a neutral color, and they also chose
easier questions to answer. IQ tests require more problem-solving,
similar to the creative questions that Zhu asked.
Zhu’s subjects, when asked what red or blue madethem think of,
mostly said red represented caution, danger and mistakes,while blue
symbolized peace and openness.
The study, Zhu said, didn’t involve different cultures, suchas
China, where red symbolizes prosperity and luck. And it said nothing
about mixing red and blue to make purple.
Also, Schwarz said, color can be outweighed by clear instructions "
to be accurate or creative in a task " so color means more when a
project can be approached either way.
Originally published Friday, February 6, 2009 Copyright © 2009 The
Seattle Times Company
Lee (the saw guy)