IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0089193.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experience Reverses the Red Effect among Chinese Stockbrokers

Author

Listed:
  • Tengxiao Zhang
  • Buxin Han

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Tengxiao Zhang & Buxin Han, 2014. "Experience Reverses the Red Effect among Chinese Stockbrokers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(2), pages 1-4, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0089193
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089193
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089193
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089193&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0089193?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Russell A. Hill & Robert A. Barton, 2005. "Red enhances human performance in contests," Nature, Nature, vol. 435(7040), pages 293-293, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Meng Sun & Xiaorong Zhang & Jiangmeng Wang & Hailan Liu & Qin Zhang & Lixia Cui, 2020. "The Effect of Color on Letter Discrimination Can Be Modulated by the Global/Local Processing and Attention Level," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kareklas, Ioannis & Muehling, Darrel D. & King, Skyler, 2019. "The effect of color and self-view priming in persuasive communications," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 33-49.
    2. Hopfensitz, Astrid & Mantilla, Cesar, 2019. "Emotional expressions by sports teams: An analysis of World Cup soccer player portraits," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 75(PB).
    3. KAUFMANN, Wesley & VAN WITTELOOSTUIJN, Arjen & BOONE, Christophe, 2009. "Colorful economics: Seeing red in a prisoner's dilemma game," ACED Working Papers 2009007, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    4. Ma, Marshall Xiaoyin & Noussair, Charles N. & Renneboog, Luc, 2022. "Colors, Emotions, and the Auction Value of Paintings," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    5. Saeideh Bakhshi & Eric Gilbert, 2015. "Red, Purple and Pink: The Colors of Diffusion on Pinterest," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(2), pages 1-20, February.
    6. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nathalie Etchart-Vincent, 2013. "Cooperation: The Power Of A Single Word? Some Experimental Evidence On Wording And Gender Effects In A Game Of Chicken," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 43-64, January.
    7. Arrondel, Luc & Duhautois, Richard & Laslier, Jean-François, 2019. "Decision under psychological pressure: The shooter's anxiety at the penalty kick," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 22-35.
    8. KAUFMANN, Wesley & VAN WITTELOOSTUIJN, Arjen & BOONE, Christophe, 2009. "Colorful economics: Seeing red in a prisoner's dilemma game," Working Papers 2009017, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    9. Gennaro Apollaro & Pedro Vieira Sarmet Moreira & Yarisel Quiñones Rodríguez & Verónica Morales-Sánchez & Coral Falcó, 2022. "The Relationship between the Color of Electronic Protectors and the Outcome in Taekwondo Matches: Is There Fairness in National Competitions?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-14, June.
    10. Stijn Baert & Simon Amez, 2018. "No better moment to score a goal than just before half time? A soccer myth statistically tested," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-17, March.
    11. ASHRAF TAG-ELDEEN & ISLAM SALEM & Engelbert Falafel, 2017. "The Influence of Physical Work Environment on Hotel Back-of-the House Employees’ Satisfaction and Productivity: A Case Study on Hilton Hotels," Tourism Research Institute, Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 18(1), pages 44-65, November.
    12. Barbara Ester Adele Piga & Gabriele Stancato & Nicola Rainisio & Marco Boffi, 2021. "How Do Nature-Based Solutions’ Color Tones Influence People’s Emotional Reaction? An Assessment via Virtual and Augmented Reality in a Participatory Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-25, December.
    13. Kliger, Doron & Gilad, Dalia, 2012. "Red light, green light: Color priming in financial decisions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 738-745.
    14. Miguel Garcia-Rubio & Andres Picazo-Tadeo & Francisco Gonzalez-Gomez, 2011. "Does a red shirt improve sporting performance? Evidence from Spanish football," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(11), pages 1001-1004.
    15. van Esch, Patrick & Heller, Jonas & Northey, Gavin, 2019. "The effects of inner packaging color on the desirability of food," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 94-102.
    16. Anya Theis & Tania Bosia & Tobias Roth & Walter Salzburger & Bernd Egger, 2015. "Egg-spot pattern and body size asymmetries influence male aggression in haplochromine cichlid fishes," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 26(6), pages 1512-1519.
    17. Kocher, Martin G. & Sutter, Matthias, 2010. "Introduction to special issue "The Economics and Psychology of Football"," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 155-157, April.
    18. Yi Wang & Wing-Kai Lam & Cheuk-Hei Cheung & Aaron Kam-Lun Leung, 2020. "Effect of Red Arch-Support Insoles on Subjective Comfort and Movement Biomechanics in Various Landing Heights," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-12, April.
    19. Puccinelli, Nancy M. & Chandrashekaran, Rajesh & Grewal, Dhruv & Suri, Rajneesh, 2013. "Are Men Seduced by Red? The Effect of Red Versus Black Prices on Price Perceptions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 115-125.
    20. repec:cup:judgdm:v:11:y:2016:i:6:p:547-553 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Xue Wang & Liuna Geng & Jiawen Qin & Sixie Yao, 2016. "The potential relationship between spicy taste and risk seeking," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 11(6), pages 547-553, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0089193. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.