How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 371

whether the color would have a calming effect on the prisoners. Each
person was only held ten to fifteen minutes a day in these pink cells. After
156 days of constant use, there were no incidents of erratic behavior in the
inmates.[12]
What about the color of the pills you take? Research has shown that the
color of medicine can change the perception or association of the pill.
When scientists studied the drugs people took and the associations they
formed of them based on their colors, they found that most people felt
white pills were weak while black ones were strong. In another study,
researchers gave blue and pink placebos to medical students, who were
told the pills were either stimulants or sedatives. The students taking the
pink pills felt more energy while the students taking the blue pills felt
drowsy.
Color even enhances the perceived flavor and desirability of the food we
eat. For example, orange juice with enhanced orange hue was preferred
over naturally colored orange juice and was thought to be sweeter. This
was also true for strawberries, raspberries, and tomatoes. The redder they
looked, the more they were preferred.[13]
In one experiment, the flavor of coffee was manipulated by the color of
the serving container. Two hundred people were asked to judge coffee
served out of four different containers — red, blue, brown, and yellow.
All containers contained the same brand of coffee, yet the coffee in the
yellow container was found to be "too weak." The blue container coffee
was dubbed "too mild." Seventy-five percent of respondents found the
coffee in the brown container to be "too strong" while 85 percent found
the red container coffee to be "rich and full-bodied."[14] A similar
experiment was also done with women and facial creams. Subjects were
given pink and white face creams, which were identical except for their
color. One hundred percent of the women surveyed said that the pink
cream was more effective and milder on sensitive skin.[15]
In another experiment, researchers gave subjects laundry detergent to test
for quality. Of course, all of the boxes contained the exact same detergent,
but the outsides of the boxes were different colors. The test colors were
yellow, blue, and a combination of both. After a two-week testing period,
the test groups reported that the soap in the yellow boxes was "too harsh"
and the detergent in the blue boxes was "too weak." The detergent in the
combination yellow and blue boxes was "just right." The findings
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