A study published in the Journal 'Science' confirms the fact that colours affect your mood and shows that whether you use red or blue in an ad makes a difference to what your audience thinks.
Juliet Zhu of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver carried out the study on 600 undergraduate students and as well as testing them for memory recall when using different colours, asked them to create new products or imagine new uses for everyday ones.
Red was the better colour associated with memory and concentration, while blue helped with - and I really hate this phrase! - quite literally blue sky thinking.
That might seem obvious but in fact, Dr Zhu's study found that it's not something we are aware of on a day to day basis, with over two thirds of students predicting that blue would help with both the creativity and memory task.
"They always think blue will help them do better regardless of the task. The reality is, it only helps when the task is creative in nature. When you have cause for attention to detail you should go with red", said Dr Zhu.
Several of the tests specifically looked at colours and advertising campaigns. Red was better if you wanted people to focus on the technical details of a camera, while blue was better if you wanted to highlight all the possibilities the camera could be used for.
At the same time, when taking a fake brand of toothpaste, red worked better when getting through the message 'cavity prevention.' But blue was better for the most positive message 'tooth whitening.'
Reporting on Dr Zhu's study, The Toronto Globe and Mail cites another colour researcher, Markus Maier of Stony Brook University in New York, who says he has found that red can also have an inhibitive and disorientating effect. One of his recent studies involved bombarding an exam test subject with a flash of red light. Markus Maier found that this 'flash of danger' then ended up taking up valuable brain space was needed to sit the exam.
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- Red colour helps with concentration: Study (canada.com)
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