Passion or anger, sweet or sophisticated, the shades of red evokes all different emotions.
In most of Asia, red is considered the color for good luck, and is the color typically worn by the brides at weddings. And in Russia, the word for ‘red’ also means beautiful.
Two of the many psychologist who study the effects of the color red were Dr. Ravi Mehta, and Dr. Rui (Juliet) Zhu, documented on sciencemag.org. One of their experiments showed the effect of red versus blue and its effect on people while they were studying, and took place at the University of British Columbia.
“We demonstrate that red color induces primarily an avoidance motivation and that red enhances performance on a detail-oriented task, whereas blue enhances performance on a creative task,” confirmed Mehta and Zhu.
When Dr. Zhu’s participants were asked what red or blue made them think of, most said that red represented caution, danger or mistakes, and that blue symbolized peace and openness, printed on the New York Times.
Being an emotionally intense color, red can sometimes lead to a faster heartbeat and breathing, according to infoplease.com. And a University of Washington in Louisville study reported that natural redheads are more susceptible to pain and need more anesthesia when they have a surgery than other people.
In marketing, red is also used as the color of ‘buy now’ or ‘click here’ buttons, because it stimulates people to make quick decisions. And in advertising it evokes erotic feelings, as reported by Color Wheel Pro.