The Influence of Color on Impulsivity and Arousal: Part 1 – Hue

Impulsivity and arousal are two similar yet distinct emotional and behavioral states that have been shown to be influenced by color in many fields, such as clothing, and environment design. This series of studies investigates the fundamental theory of how color impacts on people’s impulsivity and arousal states. To achieve this goal, psychophysical methods were used to examine the impact of color environment on impulsivity and arousal. Two main factors were used to quantify them: response time and error rate in problem solving. The psychophysical experiment was designed to examine whether, in a particular color environment, the response time and error rate were different. Participants sat in front of a large TV screen showing different colored backgrounds to complete a range of psychometric tests. The color backgrounds varied in hue. During the experiment, participants were required to give their responses to each of the psychometric tests as quickly and accurately as possible. The results showed that different colors can significantly influence response time and error rate, which suggests that color has a distinct influence on impulsivity and arousal. Gender difference have also been investigated. This paper mainly discusses hue influence on impulsivity and arousal. The influence of chroma along with hue will be explored in the next paper.