Why red is the most powerful colour

[Tarquin Farquart]

In red we see shades of life, death, fury, shame, courage, anguish, pride and the occasional overuse of exfoliants designed to combat signs of aging.

How Do We See Red? Count the Ways

[Jay Tea]

[jw]

I'm with Jay Tea, and that guy's made a big difference this season, moreso than Ronnie.

I came late to graphic design, but I recall being told early on that the sparse use of red on a page was guaranteed to draw the viewer's attention to whatever was written in red.

Look at this post vacantly. Does the red bit stand out?
It does for me, but then I'm convinced...

[ganzfeld]

For lots of people red makes things stand out but a minority of people report blue as more conspicuous.

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

How Do We See Red? Count the Ways

Interesting article. I have to take issue with a couple of the details (but only because they touch on areas of color science with which I'm familar, not that they are completely wrong). It's a very enjoyable essay about the color red.

[Pseudo_Croat]

I always heard that yellow was the most powerful color - or at least the combination of yellow and black.

- Pseudo "seeing red" Croat

[Tootsie Plunkette]

No, yellow is the most visible color, not the most 'powerful.'

[Tantei Kid]

Linguistically, I recall that if a language only describes one color (ignoring black/white) it would be for bright red. Then the other groups of colors trickle in varyingly.

How you respond to red (or blue) depends on your state of mind. Red is aggressive and active, blue is peaceful and relaxed. Do you crave excitement or quiet?
I know this sounds like pseudo-science, but it is real: I can tell a lot about your personality and current mood by your choice of a sequence of eight colors. Try it at any of several web sites, including www.colorquiz.com. There is a book long out of print, "The Luscher Color Test", that describes color psychology, and included the eight colored cards for doing the short version of the test. It works because we have reactions to color. Just try it. This is not one of those vague horoscope things. The Cosmonauts used it to measure their psychological state. Of course, I expect they found red to be a very powerful color.

[llewtrah]

Red = blood = death.

[Cactus Wren]

Red = blood = oh, crap, I'm out of tampons.

The Luscher test doesn't work for me, because after the first two I don't really like any of them.

[Esprise Me]

Originally Posted by Kent

I know this sounds like pseudo-science, but it is real: I can tell a lot about your personality and current mood by your choice of a sequence of eight colors. Try it at any of several web sites, including www.colorquiz.com. There is a book long out of print, "The Luscher Color Test", that describes color psychology, and included the eight colored cards for doing the short version of the test. It works because we have reactions to color. Just try it.

OK, I tried it, and I'm unconvinced. Interestingly, after I got the results, I tried re-taking the quiz, selecting exactly the same colors in the same order, but identifying as a male instead. All my results were the same except one. As a female, I'm

Working to improve her image in the eyes of others in order to obtain their compliance and agreement with her needs and wishes.

But as a male, I'm

Imaginative and sensitive; seeking an outlet for these qualities--especially in the company of someone equally sensitive. Interest and enthusiasm are readily aroused by the unusual or the adventurous.

Hmmm...I minored in psychology, and while I'm no shrink, I know enough to be extremely skeptical of this sort of thing.

You're right about one thing; it does sound like pseudoscience. Looks like pseudoscience, quacks like pseudoscience...

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Esprise Me

OK, I tried it, and I'm unconvinced.

They are all fairly nasty colours, aren't they? I tried to pick the ones I liked the first time, then when it told me to do that the second time I just picked a few (different) ones at first then picked the rest pretty much randomly.

It told me that I was able to achieve sexual satisfaction but tended to keep an emotional distance. Hmm, so that's what people mean when they keep telling me to "talk to the hand". Sorry, hand.

[chillas]

Originally Posted by jw

I came late to graphic design, but I recall being told early on that the sparse use of red on a page was guaranteed to draw the viewer's attention to whatever was written in red.

Look at this post vacantly. Does the red bit stand out?
It does for me, but then I'm convinced...

What is different stands out. Your red stands out because everything else around it is black or white. If the color scheme were different then another color, black for instance, would stand out as well.

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by chillas

What is different stands out. Your red stands out because everything else around it is black or white. If the color scheme were different then another color, black for instance, would stand out as well.

Red doesn't stand out for me anyway, since I'm a bit colourblind. The other day I was looking at the builders' instructions on the inside of a hoarding ("Water pipe here" or whatever) for some reason. There was a message written in yellow that I could see easily, but my friend mentioned several others and I couldn't see what he was referring to - I thought he was looking somewhere else. Eventually I realised the messages he meant were painted in red on brown chipboard, and until I concentrated they'd been totally invisible to me.

[Esprise Me]

Isn't red-green colorblindness the most common form? I know it's much more common among men than women, because the gene for it is on the X chromosome. That's certainly something to consider in weighing a judgment of "powerful" colors--it's hard to be a powerful color when you're invisible to X percent of the population!

[jw]

Originally Posted by chillas

What is different stands out. Your red stands out because everything else around it is black or white. If the color scheme were different then another color, black for instance, would stand out as well.

I'm not so sure it works with all colours. My eyes are always more drawn to sparse red than any other colour.

It's late here, I'll make some examples tomorrow to illustrate.