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One place that I worked the majority of users were from Asian descent. For them the red was GOOD, Important, Money good sign. For me red was always ''warning''

One place that I worked the majority of users were from Asian descent. For them the red was GOOD, Important, Money good sign. For me red was always ''warning'', stop, danger... So I don't think red is a good color or even if it has to have color..

acchow 13y ago
I'm of Asian descent and cannot confirm. They still use red stop signs and traffic lights. Red is also the color of blood - similarly, there's a fair amount of literature supporting the evolutionary emergence of red as a signal of danger.
- dalke 13y ago
  Really? I thought it was one of those low-evidence beliefs. Consider http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3933460/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3933460/ : > Recent research has shown that the color red influences psychological functioning. Red is hypothesized to be linked to aggression and danger in evolution, and these links are enhanced by culture-specific uses of red. Thus, color meanings are thought to be grounded in biologically based proclivities and learned associations. However, to date, there has been no direct evidence for the influence of experience on the red effect. This study focused on whether experience could change the psychological effects of the color red. In the context of the Chinese stock market, contrary to the meaning generally associated with red as negative and green as positive, red represents a rise in stock price and green stands for a decrease. An experiment using a 2×2 between subjects factorial design demonstrated that red (compared with green) impaired Chinese college students’ performance on an IQ test (in accordance with the red effect), but the opposite effect was found among stockbrokers. These results provide direct evidence of learned color meanings, in support of the general model of color effect. ... which suggests that red has a non-trivial learned color meaning on people, and leaving open the possibility that it's mostly, if not all, culturally based. Or consider http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20677892 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20677892 : > in a series of 7 experiments we demonstrate that women perceive men to be more attractive and sexually desirable when seen on a red background and in red clothing, and we additionally show that status perceptions are responsible for this red effect. They hypothesize that red is not a general signal of danger, but has many meanings. NOTE! http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23398185 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23398185 points out that there's likely publication bias in this experiment, so there might be no signal. I bring up the study anyway to point out that many people have different interpretations for the "evolutionary emergence", and the evidence is low. Or consider http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23148465 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23148465 : > Claims of universality pervade color preference research. It has been argued that there are universal preferences for some colors over others (e.g., Eysenck, 1941), universal sex differences (e.g., Hurlbert & Ling, 2007), and universal mechanisms or dimensions that govern these preferences (e.g., Palmer & Schloss, 2010). However, there have been surprisingly few cross-cultural investigations of color preference and none from nonindustrialized societies that are relatively free from the common influence of global consumer culture. Here, we compare the color preferences of British adults to those of Himba adults who belong to a nonindustrialized culture in rural Namibia. British and Himba color preferences are found to share few characteristics, and Himba color preferences display none of the so-called "universal" patterns or sex differences. Since you say that there is a "fair amount of literature" on this topic, can you point it out? I've not been able to find anything rigorous which supports your statement. Certainly nothing which is stronger than that last citation.
  - nl 13y ago
    Whilst it is true that colors are seen differently in various cultures, the universality of red as the color of stop signs makes it a sensible choice for a color that is intended to make someone consider the consequences of an action. Not the OP, but there is a fair bit of literature which could be construed to support their point. Indeed, 2 out of the 3 references you cite could support their point. 1) Note that the general Chinese student performed worse when red was used - despite the generally positive Chinese cultural values put on red. The fact that training could overcome this does not invalidate that point. Indeed, the learnt value of red indicates that it may be sensible to use it in UI, simply because it is fairly standard. 2) Studies have shown that many women find dangerous men more attractive[1]. Perhaps this supports the idea that red represents danger? 3) Without access to the full study there is no way of determining exactly what this says. Also, I like this study showing that people wearing red in Olympic combat sports have an advantage: http://community.dur.ac.uk/r.a.hill/red_advantage.htm http://community.dur.ac.uk/r.a.hill/red_advantage.htm [1] eg http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/head-games/201310/why-do-women-fall-bad-boys http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/head-games/201310/why-do...
    - bch 13y ago
      > the universality of red as the color of stop sign http://i.imgur.com/6UTTUjW.jpg http://i.imgur.com/6UTTUjW.jpg http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign
      - thaumasiotes 13y ago
        The wikipedia link is strong support for the idea that stop signs are universally red. Every pictured sign, from Argentina to Zimbabwe, is at the very least framed in red, and most are considerably redder than that. The text notes "The white legend/red field appearance is usually the same [from country to country]". The imgur link shows an unexplained green sign. Any thoughts as to why it's green?
        bch 13y ago
seanmcdirmid 13y ago
Red is still the color of emergency, alert, STOP, etc..in China. We are at orange alert on pollution right now, if it gets any worse, we will be on a red alert. Now if we are going to talk about the meaning of check marks and crosses in the Japanese market....

acchow 13y ago

I'm of Asian descent and cannot confirm. They still use red stop signs and traffic lights. Red is also the color of blood - similarly, there's a fair amount of literature supporting the evolutionary emergence of red as a signal of danger.

dalke 13y ago
Really? I thought it was one of those low-evidence beliefs. Consider http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3933460/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3933460/ : > Recent research has shown that the color red influences psychological functioning. Red is hypothesized to be linked to aggression and danger in evolution, and these links are enhanced by culture-specific uses of red. Thus, color meanings are thought to be grounded in biologically based proclivities and learned associations. However, to date, there has been no direct evidence for the influence of experience on the red effect. This study focused on whether experience could change the psychological effects of the color red. In the context of the Chinese stock market, contrary to the meaning generally associated with red as negative and green as positive, red represents a rise in stock price and green stands for a decrease. An experiment using a 2×2 between subjects factorial design demonstrated that red (compared with green) impaired Chinese college students’ performance on an IQ test (in accordance with the red effect), but the opposite effect was found among stockbrokers. These results provide direct evidence of learned color meanings, in support of the general model of color effect. ... which suggests that red has a non-trivial learned color meaning on people, and leaving open the possibility that it's mostly, if not all, culturally based. Or consider http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20677892 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20677892 : > in a series of 7 experiments we demonstrate that women perceive men to be more attractive and sexually desirable when seen on a red background and in red clothing, and we additionally show that status perceptions are responsible for this red effect. They hypothesize that red is not a general signal of danger, but has many meanings. NOTE! http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23398185 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23398185 points out that there's likely publication bias in this experiment, so there might be no signal. I bring up the study anyway to point out that many people have different interpretations for the "evolutionary emergence", and the evidence is low. Or consider http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23148465 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23148465 : > Claims of universality pervade color preference research. It has been argued that there are universal preferences for some colors over others (e.g., Eysenck, 1941), universal sex differences (e.g., Hurlbert & Ling, 2007), and universal mechanisms or dimensions that govern these preferences (e.g., Palmer & Schloss, 2010). However, there have been surprisingly few cross-cultural investigations of color preference and none from nonindustrialized societies that are relatively free from the common influence of global consumer culture. Here, we compare the color preferences of British adults to those of Himba adults who belong to a nonindustrialized culture in rural Namibia. British and Himba color preferences are found to share few characteristics, and Himba color preferences display none of the so-called "universal" patterns or sex differences. Since you say that there is a "fair amount of literature" on this topic, can you point it out? I've not been able to find anything rigorous which supports your statement. Certainly nothing which is stronger than that last citation.
- nl 13y ago
  Whilst it is true that colors are seen differently in various cultures, the universality of red as the color of stop signs makes it a sensible choice for a color that is intended to make someone consider the consequences of an action. Not the OP, but there is a fair bit of literature which could be construed to support their point. Indeed, 2 out of the 3 references you cite could support their point. 1) Note that the general Chinese student performed worse when red was used - despite the generally positive Chinese cultural values put on red. The fact that training could overcome this does not invalidate that point. Indeed, the learnt value of red indicates that it may be sensible to use it in UI, simply because it is fairly standard. 2) Studies have shown that many women find dangerous men more attractive[1]. Perhaps this supports the idea that red represents danger? 3) Without access to the full study there is no way of determining exactly what this says. Also, I like this study showing that people wearing red in Olympic combat sports have an advantage: http://community.dur.ac.uk/r.a.hill/red_advantage.htm http://community.dur.ac.uk/r.a.hill/red_advantage.htm [1] eg http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/head-games/201310/why-do-women-fall-bad-boys http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/head-games/201310/why-do...
  - bch 13y ago
    > the universality of red as the color of stop sign http://i.imgur.com/6UTTUjW.jpg http://i.imgur.com/6UTTUjW.jpg http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign
    - thaumasiotes 13y ago
      The wikipedia link is strong support for the idea that stop signs are universally red. Every pictured sign, from Argentina to Zimbabwe, is at the very least framed in red, and most are considerably redder than that. The text notes "The white legend/red field appearance is usually the same [from country to country]". The imgur link shows an unexplained green sign. Any thoughts as to why it's green?
      - bch 13y ago

seanmcdirmid 13y ago

Red is still the color of emergency, alert, STOP, etc..in China. We are at orange alert on pollution right now, if it gets any worse, we will be on a red alert. Now if we are going to talk about the meaning of check marks and crosses in the Japanese market....