IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0117148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Red, Purple and Pink: The Colors of Diffusion on Pinterest

Author

Listed:
  • Saeideh Bakhshi
  • Eric Gilbert

Abstract

Many lab studies have shown that colors can evoke powerful emotions and impact human behavior. Might these phenomena drive how we act online? A key research challenge for image-sharing communities is uncovering the mechanisms by which content spreads through the community. In this paper, we investigate whether there is link between color and diffusion. Drawing on a corpus of one million images crawled from Pinterest, we find that color significantly impacts the diffusion of images and adoption of content on image sharing communities such as Pinterest, even after partially controlling for network structure and activity. Specifically, Red, Purple and pink seem to promote diffusion, while Green, Blue, Black and Yellow suppress it. To our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate how colors relate to online user behavior. In addition to contributing to the research conversation surrounding diffusion, these findings suggest future work using sophisticated computer vision techniques. We conclude with a discussion on the theoretical, practical and design implications suggested by this work—e.g. design of engaging image filters.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0117148
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117148
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0117148
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0117148&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0117148?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.
    2. Petty, Richard E & Cacioppo, John T & Schumann, David, 1983. "Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 10(2), pages 135-146, September.
    3. John K. Courtis, 2004. "Colour as visual rhetoric in financial reporting," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 265-281, September.
    4. Rajagopal, 2014. "The Human Factors," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Architecting Enterprise, chapter 9, pages 225-249, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Meyers-Levy, Joan & Peracchio, Laura A, 1995. "Understanding the Effects of Color: How the Correspondence between Available and Required Resources Affects Attitudes," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 22(2), pages 121-138, September.
    6. Olney, Thomas J & Holbrook, Morris B & Batra, Rajeev, 1991. "Consumer Responses to Advertising: The Effects of Ad Content, Emotions, and Attitude toward the Ad on Viewing Time," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(4), pages 440-453, March.
    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. Yunhwan Kim & Sunmi Lee, 2022. "#ShoutYourAbortion on Instagram: Exploring the Visual Representation of Hashtag Movement and the Public’s Responses," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    2. Yu, Joanne & Egger, Roman, 2021. "Color and engagement in touristic Instagram pictures: A machine learning approach," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    3. Nanne, Annemarie J. & Antheunis, Marjolijn L. & van der Lee, Chris G. & Postma, Eric O. & Wubben, Sander & van Noort, Guda, 2020. "The Use of Computer Vision to Analyze Brand-Related User Generated Image Content," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 156-167.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Ramendra Pratap Singh & Neelotpaul Banerjee, 2018. "Exploring the Influence of Celebrity Credibility on Brand Attitude, Advertisement Attitude and Purchase Intention," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 19(6), pages 1622-1639, December.
    4. Rosbergen, Edward & Wedel, Michel & Pieters, Rik, 1997. "Analyzing visual attention tot repeated print advertising using scanpath theory," Research Report 97B32, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    5. Yukio Ohsawa, 2018. "Graph-Based Entropy for Detecting Explanatory Signs of Changes in Market," The Review of Socionetwork Strategies, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 183-203, December.
    6. Schoormans, Jan P. L. & Robben, Henry S. J., 1997. "The effect of new package design on product attention, categorization and evaluation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 18(2-3), pages 271-287, April.
    7. Heribert Gierl & Roland Helm & Michaela Satzinger, 2000. "Die Wirkung positiver und negativer Aussagen in der Werbung vor dem Hintergrund des Message Framing," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 234-256, May.
    8. Varsha Jain & Subhadip Roy & Adwita Pant, 2013. "Effect of colour and relative product size (RPS) on consumer attitudes," Transnational Marketing Journal, Oxbridge Publishing House, UK, vol. 1(1), pages 41-58, October.
    9. Muhammad Raza, Normalisa Md Isa, Shamsul Huda Bt Abd Rani, 2019. "Effect of Celebrity-Endorsed Advertisement and Entrepreneurial Marketing on Purchase Behavior of Smartphone Consumers in Pakistan," Journal of Management Sciences, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 6(1), pages 15-29, March.
    10. Fortin, David R. & Dholakia, Ruby Roy, 2005. "Interactivity and vividness effects on social presence and involvement with a web-based advertisement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 387-396, March.
    11. Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Cristina‐Andrea Araújo‐Bernardo, 2020. "What colour is the corporate social responsibility report? Structural visual rhetoric, impression management strategies, and stakeholder engagement," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 1117-1142, March.
    12. Mahsa Akbari, 2015. "Different Impacts of Advertising Appeals on Advertising Attitude for High and Low Involvement Products," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 16(3), pages 478-493, June.
    13. Shirai, Miyuri, 2009. "Investigation of emotional responses to an unexpected price," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 2-8.
    14. Belanche, Daniel & Flavián, Carlos & Pérez-Rueda, Alfredo, 2017. "Understanding Interactive Online Advertising: Congruence and Product Involvement in Highly and Lowly Arousing, Skippable Video Ads," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 75-88.
    15. Rodríguez-Molina, M.A. & Frías-Jamilena, D.M. & Castañeda-García, J.A., 2015. "The contribution of website design to the generation of tourist destination image: The moderating effect of involvement," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 303-317.
    16. Aner Tal & Yaniv Gvili & Moty Amar, 2021. "Visual Size Matters: The Effect of Product Depiction Size on Calorie Estimates," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-19, November.
    17. repec:dgr:rugsom:97b32 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Rahman, Shaikh Moksadur, 2020. "Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention: Evidence from Bangladesh," Asian Business Review, Asian Business Consortium, vol. 10(2), pages 99-108.
    19. Del Barrio-García, Salvador & Kamakura, Wagner A. & Luque-Martínez, Teodoro, 2019. "A Longitudinal Cross-product Analysis of Media-budget Allocations: How Economic and Technological Disruptions Affected Media Choices Across Industries," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-15.
    20. Wang Kai, 2019. "Towards a Taxonomy of Idea Generation Techniques," Foundations of Management, Sciendo, vol. 11(1), pages 65-80, January.
    21. Bridgelall, Raj & Stubbing, Edward, 2021. "Forecasting the effects of autonomous vehicles on land use," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).

    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:pone00:0117148. 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.