Seeing Red, So to Speak and Maybe More or Less

Some psychologists say that people see more in the color red than just the color. This study follows in the tradition of seeing things this way:

“Extending Color Psychology to the Personality Realm: Interpersonal Hostility Varies by Red Preferences and Perceptual Biases,” Adam K. Fetterman [pictured here], Tianwei Liu, Michael D. Robinson, Journal of Personality, epub 2014. (Thanks to investigator Neil Martin for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at North Dakota State University, USA and Knowledge Media Research Center, Tübingen, Germany, explain:

“It was found that: (a) a preference for the color red was higher as interpersonal hostility increased, (b) hostile people were biased to see the color red more frequently than non-hostile people, and (c) there was a relationship between a preference for the color red and hostile social decision-making.”

BONUS: Co-author Michael D. Robinson is co-author also of this work about a possible non-red influence of hostility:

Meier, B. P., Wilkowski, B. M., & Robinson, M. D. (May, 2009). “Hotheaded” is more than an expression: The embodied representation of anger in terms of heat. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society (APS), San Francisco, CA.

BONUS: Why seeing red may be a load of bull