Paint the Walls Blue To Boost Creativity?

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I've always thought that people who believed that motivation was affected by the colors of walls and so on were deluding themselves. Science has a new study that suggests I may be wrong. Researchers found that people doing tasks with a blue background on their computer monitors were more creative. And, as reported on the fantastic web site BPS Research Digest:

In yet another experiment, participants were given twenty "parts" from
which to design a child's toy. Participants given red parts designed
toys that independent judges rated to be more practical and
appropriate, but less original and novel. By contrast, participants
given blue parts came up with more creative toy designs.

Check out the BPS link for other nuances of how color affects performance.

I remain a bit skeptical, but — given my commitment to evidence-based management — I am less skeptical than before I read this research. And I am not going to change the blue background that I've had on my computer monitor for several years just in case!

Here is the reference:

Ravi Mehta, Rui (Juliet) Zhu (2009). Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances. Science. In Press.

Comments

10 responses to “Paint the Walls Blue To Boost Creativity?”

February 10, 2009

adora

This is interesting. I always like to know how the environment affects our emotions. There are many studies done on the effects of colour. Some seem to be innate, others are cultural. Like Chinese thinks black as death while New Zealanders see black as royalty.
There was a study in which they painted jail cells pink and light blue. Initially they found that the prisoners were more calm in pink cells, but they became more angry and violent than the ones in blue room.
There is another study, it suggest that pink may hinder brain development in babies. The theory is that pink is a mild form of red. And red is the color of blood in which humans are born to feel fear and alert to. (This study however is questionable because they weren’t able to get a large number of babies.) If it is confirmed, can you imagine the damage we are doing to baby girls?!

Reply
February 10, 2009

adora

This is interesting. I always like to know how the environment affects our emotions. There are many studies done on the effects of colour. Some seem to be innate, others are cultural. Like Chinese thinks black as death while New Zealanders see black as royalty.
There was a study in which they painted jail cells pink and light blue. Initially they found that the prisoners were more calm in pink cells, but they became more angry and violent than the ones in blue room.
There is another study, it suggest that pink may hinder brain development in babies. The theory is that pink is a mild form of red. And red is the color of blood in which humans are born to feel fear and alert to. (This study however is questionable because they weren’t able to get a large number of babies.) If it is confirmed, can you imagine the damage we are doing to baby girls?!

Reply
February 10, 2009

Revisionist Punk

causation aint correlation- it very well may be that people socialized around the color blue for whatever reason have had different experiences or backgrounds…maybe gender identity ? maybe mommies who took time to go blue/ping for their little snowflakes ? Who knows….

Reply
February 10, 2009

Revisionist Punk

causation aint correlation- it very well may be that people socialized around the color blue for whatever reason have had different experiences or backgrounds…maybe gender identity ? maybe mommies who took time to go blue/ping for their little snowflakes ? Who knows….

Reply
February 10, 2009

Bobsutton

Hi,
Please forgive me, but, yes correlation is not causation, but note these are controlled lab studies with subjects randomly assigned to conditions. So these aren’t just studies that look at correlations — the researchers manipulated the colors and then saw what changes followed. Many studies suffer from the correlation is not causation problem, but this is a nice controlled experiment with random assignment to conditions and controlled treatments to different groups.

Reply
February 10, 2009

Bobsutton

Hi,
Please forgive me, but, yes correlation is not causation, but note these are controlled lab studies with subjects randomly assigned to conditions. So these aren’t just studies that look at correlations — the researchers manipulated the colors and then saw what changes followed. Many studies suffer from the correlation is not causation problem, but this is a nice controlled experiment with random assignment to conditions and controlled treatments to different groups.

Reply
February 11, 2009

Murthy

This is brilliant! Who knew experimental design could be so easy! So essentially, we can probably conclude that colors red and blue are the driving forces behind most things in the world. Because I should always be able to set up the following experiment:
1) Set up a task for participants
2) In 50% of the sample, show red; in the other 50% show blue
3) Tally the statistics for the results of the task.
4) Whichever color got more than 50% of the distribution in the results, declare that that color drove the result.
Sarcasm aside, I don’t necessarily think the proposed hypothesis is without merit. I have heard that hospitals and centers that care for mentally challenged individuals do pay particular care to colors in the facility. The motivation is that colors do provoke specific emotional reactions and that those who are challenged may not be able to effectively control those reactions.
So the hypothesis could be true, but its not clear that this specific study was designed to validate it.

Reply
February 11, 2009

Murthy

This is brilliant! Who knew experimental design could be so easy! So essentially, we can probably conclude that colors red and blue are the driving forces behind most things in the world. Because I should always be able to set up the following experiment:
1) Set up a task for participants
2) In 50% of the sample, show red; in the other 50% show blue
3) Tally the statistics for the results of the task.
4) Whichever color got more than 50% of the distribution in the results, declare that that color drove the result.
Sarcasm aside, I don’t necessarily think the proposed hypothesis is without merit. I have heard that hospitals and centers that care for mentally challenged individuals do pay particular care to colors in the facility. The motivation is that colors do provoke specific emotional reactions and that those who are challenged may not be able to effectively control those reactions.
So the hypothesis could be true, but its not clear that this specific study was designed to validate it.

Reply
February 12, 2009

Wally Bock

My question is more personal. How does this color-based emotional change work in someone like me who’s partially colorblind?

Reply
February 12, 2009

Wally Bock

My question is more personal. How does this color-based emotional change work in someone like me who’s partially colorblind?

Reply