Color is very important to humans. People love colors, it makes them more cheerful, cheerful and happy. Red is a color that often makes us warm, because it is associated with love and passion. Yet research has shown that red is a very disadvantageous color. Red affects people in a negative way, although we are completely unaware of it. What does red do to us?
Red roses.
The most commonly purchased gift on Valentine’s Day is a bouquet of red roses. The annual wedding anniversary, the birthday of your loved one, a silent admirer… We all choose red roses. Why is that anyway? It seems as if we are taught from an early age that red roses represent love, passion and warmth. Roses are seen as the most passionate flowers and red is the color of love, right? When you ask people what they think of when they think of the color red, 82% answer with words such as warmth, love, passion and happiness. 12% answer with words like blood, hate and aggression and 6% have mixed feelings about it. On Valentine’s Day we see nothing more than red hearts, cuddly toys, cards, key rings, pastries, cookies, you name it in the shops. Red, red, red.
Yet researchers at the University of Rochester have shown that red is a color that induces negative behavior. According to them, red is a color that does not go together with many important parts of our lives, such as working or studying.
Red influences intelligence.
300 American and German students were assigned to take an IQ test in the interest of science. Naturally, they were unaware of what the research was about and how they were being tested. The students were given several IQ tests, which they had to do as well as possible. The research was not specifically about the test results, but mainly about how the color affected the students. They received a red and a green colored test and the colors were also more neutral, such as black, white or gray. Not the entire test was in the relevant color, but only the student number or the front page of the relevant IQ test. The students who had found red shades in the test had also only performed worse on these tests. After assessing the tests, it turned out that all ‘red’ tests were much worse than the green and neutral-colored tests. So it wasn’t just the striking color instead of the normal neutral colors, because the ‘green’ tests were also made significantly better than the red ones.
Red means danger.
In everyday life we encounter many red phenomena that indicate danger. In general, red in traffic tells you to pay attention. This includes traffic lights, brake lights and traffic signs.
We also encounter red objects at work that warn us. Red exclamation marks on warning stickers, a red button to stop the machine if there is danger. The red color is known to have a warning meaning about things like this. The Rochester researchers conducted an additional experiment on the students to demonstrate that red signals danger even in completely harmless (and unknown) situations.
In this study, the students were given another IQ test. Some of them received a test with red shades, others did not. The students were allowed to choose easy or difficult questions. When seeing the results, one could conclude that the students who encountered red shades mainly opted for the easy questions. The students who did not encounter any red shades in the test were confident enough and generally opted for the more difficult questions. Unconsciously, the red shades warned the students about certain risks. The students themselves did not notice the colors present in the keys and they actually did not notice the red at all. It has been shown that red unconsciously has a bad influence on people.
Conclusion.
Red not only represents all the things that seem to make us so happy as humans, such as love, warmth, passion and friendship. Red is also an unpleasant color that provokes a negative reaction. Studying from a red-covered book is not good for concentration and intelligence. Red says that it is actually too difficult to learn and makes the motivation disappear. Red is also a negative color in the workplace, mainly because it clearly reduces performance. Red means danger, risky and being on guard. So don’t wear a red shirt on your first date, because that immediately affects the first impression, don’t take a red lunch box to work and cover your study books with lots of color and everything but red! my view on