Red Color and Risk-Taking Behavior in Online Environments

Timo Gnambs, Markus Appel and Aileen Oeberst

PLOS ONE, 2015, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-12

Abstract: In many situations red is associated with hazard and danger. As a consequence, it was expected that task-irrelevant color cues in online environments would affect risk-taking behaviors. This assumption was tested in two web-based experiments. The first study (N = 383) demonstrated that in risky choice dilemmas respondents preferred the less risky option when the displayed university logo was in red (versus gray); but only when both choice alternatives were at least moderately risky. The second study (N = 144) replicated these results with a behavioral outcome: Respondents showed more cautious behavior in a web-based game when the focal stimuli were colored red (versus blue). Together, these findings demonstrate that variations in the color design of a computerized environment affect risk taking: Red color leads to more conservative choices and behaviors.

Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0134033

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0134033

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