Think: stop signs, sirens, fire engines, and red traffic lights.
Red is also used to convey danger in a non-literal way.
People tend to associate red with negative, danger-bearing emotions.
Verywell / Cindy Chung
This could be because it is the color of fire, blood, and sometimes poisonous or dangerous animals.
The Color Red Stimulates Excitement and Energy
This stimulating color is also associated with excitement.
Red Color Psychology and Aggression
Across cultures, people intuitively associate red withthe concept of anger.
In the arena of sports, wearing the color red can also increase your chances of winning.
In all four competitions, red-clad contestants won more fights.
Many think these results are due to the link between red and perceived dominance.
For instance, donning a red uniform may cause an athlete to feel dominant and perform more aggressively.
Whatever the reason, it is clear that red-clad athletes tend to have a significant advantage over their opponents.
The Color Red Symbolizes Passion and Desire
But red does not always signal danger and aggression.
Perhaps not surprisingly, red also symbolizes passion, love, and desire.
These associations could explain why people wearing red are consistently rated as more attractive by the opposite sex.
Some men saw a woman wearing a red shirt while others saw the same woman wearing a blue shirt.
Results showed that men rated the woman in red as more sexually desirable than thesamewoman in blue.
The “power tie” worn by businessmen across the globe is, traditionally, red.
Kuniecki M, Pilarczyk J, Wichary S.The color red attracts attention in an emotional context.
An ERP study.Front Hum Neurosci.
2019;14(4).
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0215610
Fetterman AK, Robinson MD, Meier BP.Anger as seeing red: Evidence for a perceptual association.Cogn Emot.
