The Influence of Color on Human Behavior

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Researches on how color of lighting in a room brings effects to human’s behavior have had a significant history in the field of psychology. Colors fill the world. Without realizing it or not, color has a remarkable influence on how human behave, especially red color. According to Maier, Barchfeld, Elliot & Pekrun (2009), infants showed preferences for the color red in compare to green while in a hospitable and friendly environment. This finding can be interpreted as red color transmitted a happier mood to human or even infants, which were younger than two years old. However, there was study which showed opposite results from the above research. Elliot, Maier, Moller, Friedman & Meinhardt (2007) reported that red is predicted to weaken performance on different kind of achievement tasks because the color red implied threats to failure and hence caused anxiety. The two past researches above which shown relatively opposite results thus leaving a trail of doubts to psychologist in investigating the real effects of color on human’s emotions. The study if believed succeed could bring a huge advantage to educators and employers since by controlling the color of environment, students’ and employees’ productivity in both studies and work can be maximized.

Emotion is a response of stimuli. Bänziger, Granjean and Scherer (2009) stated that the appropriateness of the total pattern of bodily and behavioral changes as an adaptive response to a relevant situation is referred to emotion production competence which allowed the organism to successfully cope with its consequences. On the other hand, Moller, Maier and Elliot (2009) reported that reds, blues, greens and yellows have meaningful association that contained direct implications for psychol...

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