Red Color Association Experiment

As we take a look around, the world surrounding us seems to be filled with endless amounts of color, color that we unconsciously associate with various meanings. Every time you look down the street, there are signs telling you to “stop,” “yield,” or “slow down,” but for some reason the first thing you see isn’t the words or even the shape of the sign, instead you notice the color. As humans, we are exposed to many different color pairings and specific messages, concepts, and experiences throughout our lifetime (Elliot, Maier, Binser, Friedman, & Pekrun, 2009). Daily occurrences such as passing a traffic light expose us to repeated color pairings that as a result produce strong color associations. When reinforced these color associations have the power to trigger automatic responses without the consciousness of an …show more content…
We provided participants with one of three surveys, each of which contained identical anagrams, but were written in different colors. Individuals were given surveys with either red, black, or green instructions. Because of its attribution to negative connotations, instructions in red are hypothesized to hinder the performer’s ability to solve the anagram. This means participants will correctly unscramble fewer words within the time limit when presented with a red inked survey. We also predicted that because participants with the red survey will unscramble fewer words, they will most likely rate the anagram test as more difficult than participants with other colored surveys. Both the green and black colored ink are believed to have the same amount of unscrambled words at the conclusion of this experiment. It is also hypothesized that none of the following participants will think the color of their survey influenced their ability to unscramble the