Blue is for creativity; red is for...

Seema Singh — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 02:39:00 GMT

Caution, attention to detail.

And you thought colour is merely cosmetic!

In today's Science, researchers report how colours (primary colours, to begin with) have impact on cognitive task performance of individuals. The colour blue inspires creativity, while red focuses the eye for details.

The implication can be wide ranging, from its use in educational settings to street signs to warning labels, say researchers Ravi Mehta and Rui Zhu of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

The effect of colour on cognition and human behaviour has intrigued researchers for ages. Since not many have studied the psychological processes through which colour operates, the findings have been varied, and often conflicting.

Now, theorizing on the psychological process that affects cognitive task performance, researchers use two primary colours -- red and blue - to demonstrate that these colours "activate different motivations and consequently enhance performances on different types of cognitive tasks". (Most studies use two of the three primary colours - red, blue, green.)

The team performed a series of six studies on humans to test the effects of red and blue on their performance in a variety of tasks, such as memorizing word lists, solving anagrams, developing toy ideas for children (e.g. generating as many creative uses for a brick as possible in a minute), etc.

They concluded: red background activates a risk-lessening motivation for the work at hand, associated with careful attention to detail; blue background inspires exploratory motivations associated with creative thinking.

There's a whole lot out there on colour and psychology, if you are interested.

P.S: Since a third of my wardrobe already consists of blue, I'm going to be wearing more of this colour over the next few weeks and tell you if my creativity has increased or not. Of course, among others, my bosses will have to weigh in on this...

P.P.S: Meanwhile, why don't you keep a tab on your creativity, or if you wear red or have it in your background, observe whether you are turning wonkish or not!

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Lab Rats : colour

Blue is for creativity; red is for...