If you’ve met me in person you know that I have rather an extensive wardrobe of red outfits. I do love red (but believe it or not it is not my favourite colour). I am lucky that red is now in fashion. And especially in winter it really brightens things up.
Red is a power colour according to researchers (which one’s I don’t know) it is memorable and has cut through – that is why so many companies have a red logo. We all know that red cars go faster….apparently they get more speeding tickets too (I wonder if this is still the case now that camera’s issue the speeding fines.)
I heard a brief article on the radio last night that said – that if you wear red – you are going to be more successful. More successful than what I thought and I also wondered where this ‘research’ was from?
It, in fact, comes out of the fact that the Chinese think that the colour red is lucky and they are wearing red uniforms during the Olympics (as they have always done).
The research was published in this month’s issue of Psychological Science. Researchers showed 42 taekwondo referees videos of blue and red clad competitors sparring.
Then they swapped their colours, but they were exactly the same moves.
Competitors wearing red got thirteen percent more points and the points increased after the blue athlete was digitally transformed into a red athlete and decrease when the red competitor turned blue.
“Although there is a need for further research, including research on the effects of different colours, our results suggest a need to change the rules or support referees by providing electronic decision-making aids in those sports in which this colour bias may be a problem.”
I just wear red because I like it.
Graham says
Red is the Western colour for debt, also for value decrease on the ASX and green for increase.
On the Shanghai SX red is the colour for value increase and green for decrease.