Tell me more ×
Skeptics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for scientific skepticism. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite
1

I occasionally see articles from individuals working in marketing making claims about how colour affects consumer behaviour.

For example, the infographic below describes how to produce a 'landing page' for a website. It all sounds like reasonable advice for optimising websites, until I reach the bottom where it highlights how different colours can influence actions. This is a claim I've seen quite a few times and seems to seep into everyday conversation. I can understand how we might associate red with danger, blue with boys, pink with girls etc, but they aren't strictly the same thing (eg, behavioural). Are the claims rooted in science, or are they just a popular marketing trope?enter image description here

share|improve this question
possible duplicate of Is there a relationship between yellow and moods? – Tom77 Mar 11 '12 at 14:00
The association of blue with boys and pink with girls is an absolutely artificial one, which started in the Western world at the beginning of last century... – nico Mar 11 '12 at 15:55
Closing as the question is really too broad to be answered. There are entire books written on the subject. – Sklivvz♦ Mar 11 '12 at 17:40
How is it 'too broad'? Your comment is 'too broad'. If somebody knows whether or not the claims made by marketers are rooted in evidence, then I don't see how a subjective claim of 'too broad' applies. A helpful response would have been to suggest improvements to the question. – James Mar 11 '12 at 19:33
@James, if you read our FAQ, you will notice that we ask users not to ask questions whose answer could cover a whole book. This is what I mean by too broad. If you look at the bottom of the info graphic, where there are the colours and the effects, there are 17 different claims of colour effects. Each one of them is effectively a separate question to be answered. – Sklivvz♦ Mar 11 '12 at 21:19
show 2 more comments

closed as not a real question by Tom77, Sklivvz♦ Mar 11 '12 at 17:40

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.