Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1975, 41, 207-210.

@ Perceptual and Motor Skills 1975

EFFECTS OF FOUR PSYCHOLOGICAL PRIMARY COLORS

O N ANXIETY STATE

KEITH W. JACOBS AND JAMES F. SUESS1

University of Southern Mississ@pi
Summary.-Effects of the four psychological primary colors were assessed
by randomly assigning 40 undergraduates (13 male, 27 female) to 4 treatment
groups, with each group receiving either red, yellow, green, or blue illumination.
Anxiety state was assessed at 5-min. intervals using the State-Trait Anxiety Inven-
tory. The red and yellow groups had significantly higher A-state scores than the
blue and green groups, and these values did not change significantly during the
15-rnin. testing session.

For several years psychologists have been interested in a number of

psychological aspects of color; paramount among these have been the effects of
colors on emotion. Research has usually involved either semantic attributes of
colors or the physiological effects which colors exert on the individual, with-
out actually measuring an emotional state such as anxiety.
Hevner ( 1935 ) reported that his subjects described various colors in dif-
ferent terms, red as happy and blue as both serene and dignified. Lewinski
( 1938) found that by changing the illumination in a room his 50 college students
would describe the effect of red and yellow as "most unpleasant" and green and
blue as "most pleasant." Nakashian (1964) studied the effects of colored sur-
roundings on psychomotor performance and judgment but produced incon-
clusive data. Goldstein (1942) reported a number of clinical findings - relevant
to differential color effects. In general, he reported that red was described as
disagreeable, exciting, upsetting, and imposing; green as agreeable and quieting.
Red and yellow apparently had an "expansive" effect on the organism, increasing
the effect of the external world, while blue and green had the reverse effect.
The physiological investigations of color have examined the effects of various
colors on such indices of functioning as the GSR, muscle tension, EEG, and
heart rate. Several of the recent studies have reported differential color effects.
Gerard (1958) reported differential effects of red and blue when a number of
physiological indices were recorded. Wilson ( 1966) noted red was more arous-
ing than green when GSR was the dependent variable. A recent study by Jacobs
and Hustmyer (1974) found differential effects on GSR but not on heart rate or
respiration rate when four psychological primary colors were used as the inde-
pendent variables.
Much research to date, whether using semantic variables or physiological
measures, can be criticized on the groi~ndsthat the colors used as stimuli are not
'Requests for reprints may be addressed to K. W. Jacobs, Southern Station Box 5238,
Hattiesburg, Miss. 39401.
208 K. W. JACOBS & J. F. SUESS

clearly specified and are very different between studies even when the same
names are applied to the colors used.
The present investigation examined the effects of the four psychological
primary colors on the fluctuating anxiety state of the individual who is perceiving
the colors. Apparently none of the previous studies have looked at the effect of
colors on standard pencil-and-paper measures of anxiety. While physiological
measures of arousal and inventoried measures of anxiety may not produce identi-
cal results, there is reason to believe that the present results should generally agree
with both the physiological studies and with the semantic attributes of the colors,
since these are both related to definitions of anxiety.

Participants were 40 undergraduate college students ( 1 3 male and 27 female) re-

cruited as unpaid volunteers from several small psychology classes at a southern university.
Their mean age was 19.2 yr., with a range of 17 to 29 yr.
To provide more direct comparison across studies, the four colors used by Jacobs and
Hustrnyer (1974) were employed. The examples of red, yellow, green, and blue which
were selected by their judges were photographed as 35-mm. color slides from the original
color plates.
These slides were projected from behind the participants by means of a Kodak
Carousel projector and a 5-ft. by 8-ft. screen located 5 fc. in franc of the participants. All
colors were presented at 10 ft-c. of illumination. Ambient illumination in the room was
provided throughout the presentations by a frontally screened 60-w bulb located behind
the subjects and projected onto the rear wall of the room.
Each participant was randomly assigned to one of the four color combinations based
on the order of appearance. As each subject individually entered the room he was instructed
that he was to be seated and look at the screen on which a color would appear, and at 5-
min, intervals he would be given a 20-item scale to complete. The state scale (A-state)
of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970) was admin-
istered to each participant on three occasions, interspersed by 5 min, of viewing the color
on the screen.

RESULTSAND DISCUSSION
A-state scores were analyzed using a two-way mixed effects analysis of
variance (Myers, 1966, p. 181) and program ANOVAR (Veldman, 1967).
Significant effects of colors are shown in Table 1 as the difference between color
groups ( F = 5.25, 3/36 df, p < ,005). Effects of trials and the color by trial
interaction were not significant. Table 1 also presents the mean A-state scores
for each color at each time of assessment. ScheFf6 tests of the color main effects
showed that both blue and green were significantly different ( f i < ,025) from
red and yellow (cf. Fig. 1 ) .
Present findings generally support the previous studies of the semantic
attributes of colors. The relatively high anxiety associated with red and the
relatively lorn anxiety associated with green are consistent with Goldstein's
(1942) observation that red was described as disagreeable while green was
 PRIMARY COLORS AND ANXIETY STATE 209

TABLE 1
ANALYSISO F VARIANCEAND A-STATEMEANSBY COLORAND TRIAL
Source MS df F P
Total 119.33 119
Between 333.67 39
Colors 1320.00 3 5.249 <.005
Error 251.48 36
Within 14.83 80
Trials 5.75 2 .410
Color by Trials 27.49 6 1.959
Errors 14.03 72
A-state Means by Color and Trial
Color 5 min. 10 min. 15 min. M
Blue 31.60 30.00 29.80 30.47
Yellow 40.50 42.40 40.40 41.10
Green 32.60 29.80 29.00 30.47
Red 40.70 43.60 43.80 42.70

described as agreeable and calming. The similarity of effects between red and
yellow is consistent with Lewinski (1938), as well as his report that these colors
are unpleasant. His "most pleasant" colors (green and blue) are the colors in
this study which have the relatively low A-state values. Hevner's (1935) re-
ported description of red as "happy" is not consistent with the present findings.

Min.
FIG. 1. A-state scores at each time interval. High scores (red and yellow, upper
curves) differ significantly from low scores (green and blue, lower curves)

The present findings also agree fairly well with the physiological studies.
The finding that red arouses more anxiety than blue agrees with the GSR effect
reported by Jacobs and Hustmyer (1974) and Gerard (1958). The present
finding that red is more anxiety-arousing than green agrees with the differences
in GSR reported by Wilson (1966). The present finding of a similarity between
2 10 K. W. JACOBS & J. F. SUESS

red and yellow, and the differences between these colors and the blue and green,
is less well supported by the previous studies. In the Jacobs and Hustmyer
(1974) study, using the same colors, red and green were the most arousing colors,
and blue and yellow were the least arousing colors. The relative effects of yellow
and green have not received much attention in other studies and the relative
effects of these colors remain equivocal.
The present study appears to be the first investigation in which the effect of
color has been measured using an anxiety inventory. The use of the A-state scale
has apparently been adequately sensitive to differentiate these colors using a
relatively small number of subjects in each color group. In addition to validating
some of the prior work, the present sn~dysuggests that colors differentially affect
anxiety state.
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published doctoral dissertation, Univer. of California, Los Angeles, 1958.
GOLDSTEIN,
K. Some experimental observations concerning the influence of colors on
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HEVNER,
K. Experimental studies of the affective value of colors and lines. Jorrrnal o f
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JACOBS,
K. W., & HUS&ER, F. E. Effects of four psychological primary colors on GSR,
heart rate, and respiration rate. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1974, 38, 763-766.
LBWINSKI, R. J. An investigation of individual responses to chromatic illumination.
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MYERS, J. L. Pundamentals of experimental design. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1966.
NAKASHIAN, J. S. The effects of red and reen surroundings on behavior. Journal of
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NouRsa, J. C., & WELCH, R. B. Emotional attributes of color: a comparison of violet
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SPIELBERGER, C. D., GORSUCH. R. L.. & LUSHENE. R. E. STAI: manual for the. State-
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Accepted May 19, 1975.