Seeing Red on the Road

Abstract

Human and animal research has found that red perception is associated with specific behavioral reactions, generally characterized by intense responses. Here, we explored whether red cars are perceived as more dangerous than other colored cars. One hundred Spanish drivers examined several road scenarios which involved hazardous cars with different colors: red, green, yellow, black, gray, and white. Driver's behavior (response time and probability of braking) and the perceived level of risk for each scenario were analyzed. Although car color affected participants' response times, contrary to expectations, red cars did not elicit faster responses or higher perceived levels of risk.

Pedestrians Accept Shorter Distances to Light Vehicles Than Dark Ones When Crossing the Street

“…The pilot-study results suggested that the road-crossing behavior varied with the vehicle, which motivated us to investigate if the brightness was the cause. A recent study by Díaz-Román et al. (2015), who used a computer simulator, further supported the same hypothesis.…”

“…The pilot-study results suggested that the road-crossing behavior varied with the vehicle, which motivated us to investigate if the brightness was the cause. A recent study by D ıaz-Roma´n et al (2015), who used a computer simulator, further supported the same hypothesis. They reported that participants reacted significantly earlier to black than to white vehicles in various hazardous vehicle-vehicle encounters.…”

A systematic investigation of conceptual color associations.

“…Previous studies addressing the effect of color on psychological functioning have mainly focused on the color red, showing that red heightens attention (Díaz-Román et al, 2015; Pravossoudovitch, Cury, Young, & Elliot, 2014), undermines performance (Shi, Zhang, & Jiang, 2015), increases aggressiveness and dominance (Bagchi & Cheema, 2013; Fetterman, Liu, & Robinson, 2015; Krenn, 2014), and enhances attraction (Elliot & Niesta, 2008), dependent on its context (see Elliot & Maier, 2014, for a review). It has been suggested that many of these effects are the result of learned color associations.…”