Color Red Psychology

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Introduction Perceptions produced during the psychologically processing of the color red are based on association learning. Historically red has been used to convey authority, wealth, power, strength, dominance, love, desire, sex, and status. Biologically, red is associated with a healthy state of wellbeing for an individual. Redding of the face is a signal of optimal cardiovascular health in both men and women. Red association is used as a marker indicating a rise in testosterone levels in healthy men (Elliot & Maier, 2014, p. 99). The power of the color red is theoretically referred to by many names, the red effect, red-romance effect, red potency association, etc.; the message its use conveys is studied on many planes, academics, authority, …show more content…
Does red influence how attractive a woman perceives a man to be? Researchers hypothesized women perceive a man as more attractive and desirable when the image of the man is presented on a red background, drawing on red’s association with connotations of higher status (Elliot, Kayser, Greitemeyer, Lichtenfeld, Gramzow, Maier, & Liu, 2010). Seven experiments were done to test their hypothesis; female participants were presented with a photo of a moderately attractive man on a red background or a white background (Elliot et al., 2010). Participants then reported the perceived level of attractiveness for the man in the photo. The researcher’s results were found to be statically significant in support of their hypothesis, indicating the presence of red effect. A man was perceived as more attractive when his image was in the company of a red background due red-link association to higher status (Elliot et al., 2010). Data acquired from their study added to previous held theories of red association, not only did red increase perceived female attractiveness, red was also found to increase perceived male attractiveness as …show more content…
Research on this topic is limited; Thorstenson, Pazda, Elliot, & Perrett (2017) expanded topical understanding by further examining the relationship between men’s facial redness and women’s perceptions of attractiveness. Researchers studied various degrees of facial redness and its influence on women’s perception of attractiveness was tested in four experiments. Women were presented with various images of the same man with varying degrees of redness digitally produced, subjects were instructed to select the image they found most attractive and sexually desirable. Thorstenson et al. (2017) hypothesized women would find select the image with the highest degree of facial redness as the most attractive and sexually desirable. Result data showed statistically significant support of the researchers’ hypothesis, women perceived with the highest magnitude of facial redness to be more sexually attractive and sexually desirable (Thorstenson et al., 2017, p. 654). The data presented in their study adds to existing knowledge that red not only influences men’s attractiveness to women; the greater the level of facial redness present, the greater the level of perceived male
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