Colors can improve brain performance, but which one is most effective? Scientists at the University of British Columbia have revealed in a recent study, published this week in Science, that red and blue both enhance cognitive performance, depending on the nature of the task or message.

 

It was previously believed that blue or green lead to better performance than red, while some studies suggested the exact opposite. But Juliet Zhu and Ravi Mehta of the British Colombia University came to the conclusion that it all depends on the context.

 

In this study, they demonstrate how red (versus blue) color induces primarily an avoidance (versus approach) motivation, and how red enhances performance on a detail-oriented task, whereas blue enhances performance on a creative task.

 

After tracking the performances of over 600 candidates on six cognitive tasks that involved either detail-orientation or creativity, the researchers reached the conclusion that the effects of these colors occur outside of individuals’ consciousness.

 

To be more exact, color influences cognitive performance and behavior through associations that we learn.

 

For example, red is normally associated with stop signs, emergency vehicles, and teachers, Zhu explained: the avoidance motivation, or heightened state, that red activate makes us vigilant and thus helps us perform tasks where careful attention is required to produce a right or wrong answer.

 

Zhu further explained that blue, which is associated with the sky, the ocean, openness, tranquility, makes people feel safe about being creative and exploratory.

 

These colors also appear to be influencing our receptivity, the study says. For example, a background color in a fictional ad drew favorable evaluations of the product, as opposed to a blue background. In addition to that, people seem to be more receptive to negative messages on a red background (such as cavity prevention in a toothpaste commercial), than aspirational ones on a blue background (such as tooth whitening).