Colleen Hammond — Color Theory: What You Need to Know About RED (Coffee with Colleen)
that I saw — again, we're talking about red, yellow, green, and blue. This one's about jello.
Researchers started with four
bowls full of unflavored jello.
Unflavored jello, if you've ever seen it, is
clear. So they added red, yellow, green, and blue dye.
Now when the people were
blindfolded and tasted the red, yellow,
green, and blue jello they couldn't taste
a difference between them. And then
they said, "Okay, we're going to take this
away, and we're gonna un-blindfold you."..
And they brought him back in and they
started to taste them then.
And the participants said the red tasted sweet like strawberries.
The yellow tasted sour like a lemon.
The green jello tasted very tart
they said kind of like a green apple. And
then the blue they were like, "Yeah blue... I
I don't know. This one just really tastes
odd... maybe like a blue coconut or
something..." But it was always the least
tasty of the group was the blue one...
And what's really interesting is even after
the study when the people were told that
there was no flavor.... the test subjects
didn't believe that there wasn't an added flavor.
That shows how important color is
to our perception. When they were
blindfolded they couldn't taste a
difference but once they SAW the color
it just shows we taste with our eyes before we taste with our tongue.
All right, so let's talk about red. Now red is the color of fire and blood,
so it's associated with energy, war,
danger, strength, power, determination, as
well as passion, desire, and love. So it's
complex and it depends on how it's being
used, what it's being used with, and that
type of thing. So for example in uniforms
if a sports team is wearing red they
look fierce, they look taller, they look
more virile, and immediately they'll
intimidate their opponents. And they also
make the person who's
wearing the color feel like they're more
powerful. So red is an amazing color
because it is associated with so many
different things. 
Fear, beauty, strength, passion, status.
I mean, there's just so many things that
it's associated with so it depends....
You have to be very careful how you use it
and in what situation you're using it in
because,again, depending on the situation —
whether general likes, attractiveness, or
you know in design or social settings
it's gonna mean something different.
So in competitive situations it signals
dominance. In mating and courtship and
attractiveness — for males it's their
status and females it's more toward
their attractiveness. In a more general
situations it's gonna be like danger and
avoidance. So it makes you feel stronger,
it gives you that appearance of feeling
stronger, and it also commands authority.
Again, it depends on how you're wearing it.
Now notice that with all of these
political figures you're not seeing skin.
You're seeing the red. Now red associated
with skin showing is red-light district
it's very sleazy. But when a woman wears
a red suit AND she's covered up AND her
knees are covered AND she's not showing
a low neckline — that commands authority.
With men... men aren't going to wear a red
suit but you'll see them wearing...
a red tie. So when men command authority, they wear a red tie. So red on men is status,
fitness, power... you know with like a red
car, a red tie, that sort of thing. And red on
women is associated with attractiveness
or power depending on how it's worn.
Let's talk about attractiveness because
they've done studies on this.
Now they showed these pictures — same gal
but they just changed... they photoshopped
the background into being white or red.
So the woman isn't wearing red but
red is in the background. And they did this...
it wasn't her hair color wasn't her skin
color... they did this with all sorts of...
you know I can't show you all
thousand pictures that they used, right? But
in this particular instance she
literally does look better with a red
background because of her coloring but
but men preferred the women 15% more on
a red background instead of a white
background or a blue background. And the
green background was the worst.
Same with shirts. Men prefer women in red shirts as
opposed to blue shirts. Red lip color,
cheek color, clothing... if you want to get a
bigger tip — if you are a waitress and you
want a bigger tip, women who wear red
lipstick or a darker color closer to red
lipstick as waitresses earn 55% more tips! So if you're in the ah... if you're waiting tables,
wear red lipstick! You'll make a lot more money! 
So, again...
women are going to find men more
desirable as far as red cars and red ties...
and men like women to wear red
lipstick, red cheeks, have red clothing,
or have something in the background that's red...
