Table 1.

Research on color and psychological functioning.

Area of research	Central finding	Example	References
Color and Selective Attention	Red stimuli have been shown to receive an attentional advantage	Participants’ visual search times were faster for desaturated red (relative to several other colored) targets	Lindsay et al., 2010; Tchernikov and Fallah, 2010; Buechner et al., 2014; Pomerleau et al., 2014; Sokolik et al., 2014 (cf. Becker et al., 2014; Folk, in press)
Color and Alertness	Blue light has been shown to increase subjective alertness and performance on attention-based tasks	Participants exposed to blue (relative to yellow) illumination reported greater mental alertness	Lockley et al., 2006; Lehrl et al., 2007; Viola et al., 2008; Cajochen et al., 2011; Taillard et al., 2012 (cf. Vandewalle et al., 2007; Sahin and Figuerio, 2013)
Color and Athletic Performance	Wearing red has been shown to enhance performance and perceived performance in sport competitions and tasks	Tae kwon do competitors wearing red outperformed those wearing blue	Hill and Barton, 2005; Hagemann et al., 2008; Ilie et al., 2008; Greenlees et al., 2013; Sorokowski et al., 2014 (cf. Caldwell and Burger, 2011; Garcia-Rubio et al., 2011)
Color and Intellectual Performance	Viewing red prior to a challenging cognitive task has been shown to undermine performance	Participants who viewed red (relative to green or gray) on an intelligence test cover performed worse on the test	Elliot et al., 2007; Gnambs et al., 2010; Zhang and Han, 2014; Shi et al., 2015; Thorstenson, in press (cf. Yamazaki, 2010; Smajic et al., 2014)
Color and Aggressiveness/Dominance Evaluation	Viewing red on self or other has been shown to increase appraisals of aggressiveness/dominance	Participants rated males wearing red (relative to other chromatic colors) as more dominant	Greenlees et al., 2008; Little and Hill, 2007; Feltman and Elliot, 2011; Stephen et al., 2012a; Aiken and Pascal, 2013 (cf. Sorokowski and Szmajke, 2007; Furley et al., 2012)
Color and Avoidance Motivation	Viewing red in achievement contexts has been shown to increase caution and avoidance	Participants who viewed red (relative to green or gray) prior to an ostensible intelligence test evidenced greater right (versus left) frontal cortical activation	Elliot et al., 2007; Mehta and Zhu, 2009; Rutchick et al., 2010; Tanaka and Tokuno, 2011; Ten Velden et al., 2012 (cf. Elwood and Bode, 2014; Steele, 2014)
Color and Attraction	Viewing red on or near a female has been shown to increase attraction in heterosexual males	Heterosexual males rated females wearing red (relative to other chromatic colors) as more attractive	Elliot and Niesta, 2008; Roberts et al., 2010; Stephen and McKeegan, 2010; Guéguen and Jacob, 2014; Lin, 2014 (cf. Lynn et al., in press; Stephen et al., 2012b)
Color and Store/Company Evaluation	Blue stores/logos have been shown to increase quality and trustworthiness appraisals	Participants rated websites featuring blue (relative to green) as more trustworthy	Yüksel, 2009; Lee and Rao, 2010; Alberts and van der Geest, 2011; Labrecque and Milne, 2012; Ridgway and Myers, 2014 (cf. Barli et al., 2006; Chebat and Morrin, 2007)
Color and Eating/Drinking	Red has been shown to influence food and beverage perception and consumption	Participants ate less chocolate chips from a red (relative to blue or white) plate	Ross et al., 2008; Genschow et al., 2012; Guéguen, 2012; Bruno et al., 2013; Spence et al., 2014 (cf. Piqueras-Fiszman et al., 2012; Van Ittersum and Wansink, 2012)

The review of findings was restricted to those that have been supported by a minimum of five independent laboratories. The references are to representative articles within each area of research; articles with supportive findings area listed first, followed by articles with non-supportive findings (indicated by cf.).