Abstract
Several studies have investigated the influence of perceiving colors on affective outcomes and/or performance. However, the effects of seeing colors on self-selected behaviors have received little attention from physiologists and psychologists. Therefore, the present study aimed at examining whether exposure to green and red environments could influence affective judgments, perception of effort, heart rate, and gait speeds when walking and running at a self-selected pace. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions: Green, red, or white (neutral) environment. The experimental task consisted in a 20-min trial of either walking (Study 1) or running (Study 2) at the most comfortable speed on a treadmill surrounded by three large HD TV screens displaying specific properties of the studied colors. Study 1 revealed that walking in a green environment induced a significant reduction in heart rate values as compared to the red and white conditions although no differences in gait speed were found. This corroborates the calming and relaxing effect of green on the human organism. Study 2 showed that running in a green environment was associated with an increased level of perceived exertion at similar speeds (compared to other color conditions), while exposure to red induced a significant decrease in the level of tension. In both studies, the preferred gait speed was not affected by the colored environment which is discussed in relation to the energy-conservation principle. Furthermore, both studies showed that performing a 20-min walk or run at preferred pace presented beneficial mood changes. Implications of the effects of self-selected exercise under colored environments on human functioning are addressed in the discussion.
Highlights
A relatively recent yet growing body of literature is focusing on the psychological, physiological, and behavioral effects of perceiving colors and colored environments
Effects of Colors The analyses indicated that a significant main effect of Colored Environment was found on heart rate, whereas no such main effect was revealed for self-selected gait speed, perceived effort, pleasure, and arousal
Our result could relate to Dreiskaemper et al (2013) study showing that wearing blue–a color reputed to be related to comparable effects as green–was associated with lower levels of heart rate, as compared to the wearing red
Summary
A relatively recent yet growing body of literature is focusing on the psychological, physiological, and behavioral effects of perceiving colors and colored environments. Perceiving Colors and Gait physical red coloration and male dominance (e.g., Milinski and Bakker, 1990; Pryke et al, 2002). Such studies suggested that red coloration would underlie a testosterone-related cue reflecting aggressiveness. Hill and Barton (2005) exported such an interest to the field of sport performance by showing a causal relationship between wearing red and winning contests in Olympic combat sports. Subsequent studies supported these findings in real and virtual sporting contexts (e.g., Attrill et al, 2008; Ilie et al, 2008)
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