Why The Color Red Revs
You Up (But Lowers Your IQ)
SEVEN STUDIES FOR DESIGNERS AND MARKETERS ABOUT THE COMPLEX AND BIZARRE SCIENCE
OF THE COLOR RED.
Eric Jaffe
When people look at the color red, their blood pressure rises.
They blink more. Compared to other colors, red triggers
measurably more physiological arousal and neural activity.
In the area of the monkey brain that processes hue, more
neurons cue into red than to any other shade.
RED TIES HURT A JOB CANDIDATE’S
CHANCES.
The power of red is even more intriguing because it changes
with a given situation. Stop signs, fire alarms, bold lipsticks,
corrective pens, blushing cheeks, angry eyes--they all put us
on alert, but in very different ways. Sometimes red revs us up
(men universally find it attractive on women, perhaps because
they tend to wear it at peak fertility) and sometimes it cools
us down (red ties hurt a job candidate’s chances). Its effect
is puzzlingly potent: Sports teams wearing red uniforms win
more, and people, when they see red, make a stronger fist.
“It seems that red is strongly related to human motivation,
and that makes it a powerful cue to initiate basic behavioral
tendencies even without being aware of its influence,” Maier
says. The color truly shapes our actions at a subconscious
level.
Yet the color’s effect on any one individual is curiously
variable. “What is really remarkable is the fact that one and
the same color can exert opposite beha f