Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Color and Psychological Functioning

2007; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 16; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00514.x

1467-8721

Andrew J. Elliot, Markus Maier,

Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies

Color is a ubiquitous perceptual experience, yet little scientific information about the influence of color on affect, cognition, and behavior is available. Accordingly, we have developed a general model of color and psychological functioning, which we present in this article. We also describe a hypothesis derived from this model regarding the influence of red in achievement contexts. In addition, we report a series of experiments demonstrating that a brief glimpse of red evokes avoidance motivation and undermines intellectual performance, and that it has these effects without conscious awareness or intention. We close with thoughts on the need for rigorous scientific work on color psychology.