Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Yellow is for safety: perceptual and affective perspectives

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Psychological Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Is there a link between color and safety? Yellow is often used in safety contexts. Using the Singapore accident record datasets, Ho et al. provided evidence that yellow taxis have fewer accidents than blue taxis (Ho et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci 114(12):3074–3078, 2017). Does yellow differentially influence attention and action and if so is this related to purely visual or affective factors? Here, we examined the visual priority of yellow relative to luminance matched colors at opposing ends of the wavelength spectrum (i.e., red and blue), using a temporal order judgment task, between color pairs. Despite being matched in arousal, when yellow and blue were pitted against each other, yellow was consistently seen as occurring first, even when objectively appearing second at short stimulus onset asynchronies. Despite being matched in valence, yellow again showed a larger temporal priority when it was pitted against red. Yellow temporal priority bias was modulated by individual differences in regulatory focus, highlighting a potential affective-motivational origin. These results support that yellow is a safety color, having a temporal advantage, and further evidence that colors have special influences on cognition, perception and behavior.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abu-Akel, A., & Shamay-Tsoory, S. (2011). Neuroanatomical and neurochemical bases of theory of mind. Neuropsychologia, 49(11), 2971–2984.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, M. (2015). Over half of psychology studies fail reproducibility test. Nature News. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2015.18248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, C. C., Mine, P. B., & Silver, N. C. (1995). The influence of color on warning label perceptions. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 15(3), 179–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cai, M., Stetson, C., & Eagleman, D. M. (2012). A neural model for temporal order judgments and their active recalibration: A common mechanism for space and time? Frontiers in psychology, 3, 470.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cajochen, C. (2007). Alerting effects of light. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 11(6), 453–464.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carter, R. M., & Huettel, S. A. (2013). A nexus model of the temporal–parietal junction. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17(7), 328–336.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Changizi, M. A., Zhang, Q., & Shimojo, S. (2006). Bare skin, blood and the evolution of primate colour vision. Biology Letters, 2(2), 217–221.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, T., & Costall, A. (2008). The emotional connotations of color: a qualitative investigation. Color Research & Application, 33(5), 406–410.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, B., Christie, J., & Rorden, C. (2009). Temporal order judgments activate temporal parietal junction. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(10), 3182–3188.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elliot, A. J. (2015). Color and psychological functioning: a review of theoretical and empirical work. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 368.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. (2012). Color-in-context theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 61–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. (2014). Color psychology: effects of perceiving color on psychological functioning in humans. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 95–120.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, K. (1942). Some experimental observations concerning the influence of colors on the function of the organism. American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 21(3), 147–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gorn, G. J., Chattopadhyay, A., Sengupta, J., & Tripathi, S. (2004). Waiting for the web: how screen color affects time perception. Journal of Marketing Research, 41(2), 215–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guilford, J. P. (1934). The affective value of color as a function of hue, tint, and chroma. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 17(3), 342–370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hecht, S. (1924). The visibility of the spectrum. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 9(3), 211–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higgins, E. T. (1997). Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52(12), 1280–1300.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins, E. T. (1998). Promotion and prevention: Regulatory focus as a motivational principle. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 30, pp. 1–46). Cambridge, MA: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higgins, E. T., Friedman, R. S., Harlow, R. E., Idson, L. C., Ayduk, O. N., & Taylor, A. (2001). Achievement orientations from subjective histories of success: promotion pride versus prevention pride. European Journal of Social Psychology, 31(1), 3–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, R. A., & Barton, R. A. (2005). Psychology: red enhances human performance in contests. Nature, 435(7040), 293.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ho, T.-H., Chong, J. K., & Xia, X. (2017). Yellow taxis have fewer accidents than blue taxis because yellow is more visible than blue. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(12), 3074–3078.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu, K. (2018). Neural activity to threat in ventromedial prefrontal cortex correlates with individual differences in anxiety and reward processing. Neuropsychologia, 117, 566–573.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, K. (2019). Reward priming eliminates color-driven affect in perception. Psychological Research, 83, 321–331.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, K., De Rosa, E., & Anderson, A. (2018). Differential temporal salience of earning and saving. Nature Communications, 9, 2843.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, K., De Rosa, E., & Anderson, A. (2019). The effect of color on the brain. American Psychologist (under review).

  • Hu, K., Padmala, S., & Pessoa, L. (2013). Interactions between reward and threat during visual processing. Neuropsychologia, 51(9), 1763–1772.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, K., Samuel, A. G., & Chan, A. S. (2011). Eliminating inhibition of return by changing salient nonspatial attributes in a complex environment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140(1), 35–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jennings, J. R., & Wood, C. C. (1976). The e-adjustment procedure for repeated-measures analyses of variance. Psychophysiology, 13, 277–278.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lahrmann, H., Madsen, T. K. O., Olesen, A. V., Madsen, J. C. O., & Hels, T. (2018). The effect of a yellow bicycle jacket on cyclist accidents. Safety Science, 108, 209–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazareva, O. F., Shimizu, T., & Wasserman, E. A. (Eds.) (2012). How animals see the world: Comparative behavior, biology, and evolution of vision. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Megias, A., Maldonado, A., Candido, A., & Catena, A. (2011a). Emotional modulation of urgent and evaluative behaviors in risky driving scenarios. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 43(3), 813–817.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Megias, A., Maldonado, A., Catena, A., Di Stasi, L. L., Serrano, J., & Candido, A. (2011b). Modulation of attention and urgent decisions by affect-laden roadside advertisement in risky driving scenarios. Safety Science, 49(10), 1388–1393.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehta, R., & Zhu, R. J. (2009). Blue or red? Exploring the effect of color on cognitive task performances. Science, 323(5918), 1226–1229.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meier, B. P., D’agostino, P. R., Elliot, A. J., Maier, M. A., & Wilkowski, B. M. (2012). Color in context: Psychological context moderates the influence of red on approach-and avoidance-motivated behavior. PloS One, 7(7), e40333.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Nakshian, J. S. (1964). The effects of red and green surroundings on behavior. The Journal of General Psychology, 70(1), 143–161.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, S. E., Schloss, K. B., Xu, Z., & Prado-León, L. R. (2013). Music–color associations are mediated by emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(22), 8836–8841.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shore, D. I., Spence, C., & Klein, R. M. (2001). Visual prior entry. Psychological Science, 12(3), 205–212.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Theeuwes, J., & der Burg, E. (2013). Priming makes a stimulus more salient. Journal of Vision, 13(3), 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, E., Palacios, A., & Varela, F. J. (1992). Ways of coloring: comparative color vision as a case study for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 15(1), 1–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Titchener, E. B. (1908). Lectures on the elementary psychology of feeling and attention. Macmillan.

  • Wager, T. D., Keller, M. C., Lacey, S. C., & Jonides, J. (2005). Increased sensitivity in neuroimaging analyses using robust regression. Neuroimage, 26(1), 99–113.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • West, G. L., Anderson, A. K., Bedwell, J. S., & Pratt, J. (2010). Red diffuse light suppresses the accelerated perception of fear. Psychological Science, 21(7), 992–999.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • West, G. L., Anderson, A. A. K., & Pratt, J. (2009). Motivationally significant stimuli show visual prior entry: evidence for attentional capture. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35(4), 1032–1042.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox, R. R. (2005). Outlier detection. In B. S. Everitt & D. C. Howell (Eds.), Encyclopedia of statistics in behavioral science (Vol. 3, pp. 1497–1498). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yarrow, K., Jahn, N., Durant, S., & Arnold, D. H. (2011). Shifts of criteria or neural timing? The assumptions underlying timing perception studies. Consciousness and Cognition, 20(4), 1518–1531.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Celine Cammarata, and Ross Markello for assistance with subject recruitment and data collection. We also thank Juan Lupiáñez for constructive suggestions on an earlier draft of the paper, and all participants for their contribution.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Kesong Hu, Eve De Rosa & Adam K. Anderson

  2. Human Neuroscience Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Kesong Hu, Eve De Rosa & Adam K. Anderson

  3. Department of Psychology, Lake Superior State University, Sault Ste. Marie, MI, USA

    Kesong Hu

Authors
  1. Kesong Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Eve De Rosa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Adam K. Anderson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kesong Hu or Adam K. Anderson.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hu, K., De Rosa, E. & Anderson, A.K. Yellow is for safety: perceptual and affective perspectives. Psychological Research 84, 1912–1919 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01186-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01186-2

Search

Navigation