University of Rochester Posted on 06/03/2011 10:36:24 AM PDT by decimon
University of Rochester
What links speed, power, and the color red? Hint: it's not a sports car.
It's your muscles.
A new study, published in the latest issue of the journal Emotion, finds that when humans see red, their reactions become both faster and more forceful. And people are unaware of the color's intensifying effect.
The findings may have applications for sporting and other activities in which a brief burst of strength and speed is needed, such as weightlifting. But the authors caution that the color energy boost is likely short-lived.
"Red enhances our physical reactions because it is seen as a danger cue," explains coauthor Andrew Elliot, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester and a lead researcher in the field of color psychology. "Humans flush when they are angry or preparing for attack," he explains. "People are acutely aware of such reddening in others and it's implications."
But threat is a double-edged sword, argue Elliot and coauthor Henk Aarts, professor of psychology at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands. Along with mobilizing extra energy, "threat also evokes worry, task distraction, and self-preoccupation, all of which have been shown to tax mental resources," they write in the paper. In earlier color research, exposure to red has proven counterproductive for skilled motor and mental tasks: athletes competing against an opponent wearing red are more likely to lose and students exposed to red before a test perform worse.
"Color affects us in many ways depending on the context," explains Elliot, whose research also has documented how men and women are unconsciously attracted to the opposite sex when they wear red. "Those color effects fly under our awareness radar," he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at rochester.edu ...
That aside, I guess you could train yourself to imagine different colors at different times.
Ruddy ping.
The Lame Stream Media will go into a panic, and revert to "red for Dems / blue for GOP" in 2012.
Every farmboy knows you don`t wear red in the bull pasture.
They just found this out?
Bulls are color blind.
I call it the elevator button effect. Consider, the doors are closing and you see someone heading towards the elevator, obviously wanting to get onboard. You move to push the door open button and in your rush you see you’re headed towards the red stop button. It’s instinctive, you go for the red.
RUN AWAY!!
I think it`s the type of target, the scent, and the color. Did you ever try to run away from a bull with you wearing different color-t-shirts? I did.
I think empirical data from a farmboy outshines any scientific theory.
The Lame Stream Media will go into a panic, and revert to "red for Dems / blue for GOP" in 2012.
Perception of the color red enhances the force and velocity of motor output
They may have panicked, but according to the study, it's the right choice for the rats. I don't want to lose, but I would be more comfortable if the left had their traditional color, i.e. red. We became the "red states" by the moron stream media's sleight of hand.
Boing!
It’s true, it’s true! It really does.
That doesn’t mean they don’t see some shades better than others. Dogs, for example, are color blind to orange shades, apparently looks like green to them. So throwing a bright orange bumper may be great for you to see, but horrible for them. Whites stand out better for them.
You’ve kind of contradicted your color theory though. Your yellow/white shirts got little notice, but he gored the white horse. Whereas the darker horse was left alone.
Maybe it was just a bull being a bull. :) I’ll leave the experimenting to you; I’m sure I’d get tagged no matter the shirt color. :)
But fish and turtles are not.
VROOM, VROOM.
Cheers!
YSL is showing lots of red & black in the latest catwalk...the Sarah influence!
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