Key takeaways:

• Color psychology is far from universal.
• Red is still considered exciting, but also considered the least friendly color.
• Consumers find blue most calming.

Objective: Brands have historically leveraged color psychology to associate themselves with certain moods, emotions, or characteristics. As social media and augmented reality expose many people to an ever more visual world, we wanted to check in on traditional assumptions about consumer perception of color.

Colors included in the survey: Red, blue, yellow, green, purple, orange.

Question: Which characteristics do you associate with the following colors? Choose up to two.

• Friendly
• Exciting
• Creative
• Trustworthy
• Logical
• Sophisticated
• Calm
• Wise

Audience: A general panel of American consumers aged 18 – 64.

Overall Results

• Color psychology is far from universal.
• Red is still considered exciting, but also considered the least friendly color.
• Consumers find blue most calming.

Which characteristics do you associate with the following colors? Choose up to two.

Breakdown by Characteristic

Friendly

Exciting

Creative

Trustworthy

Logical

Sophisticated

Calm

Wise

Gender Breakdown

• Men are more likely to describe red as ‘exciting’.
• Women are three times as likely to describe orange as ‘friendly’

Men

Women

Conclusion

Psychological color theory may not be universal, but key themes have emerged from our findings, including an association between red and excitement, and blue and calm. 

If you’re interested in digging deeper into our findings, or asking your own questions on consumer and branding topics, contact Atom’s Communications Lead Lotte Reford to learn more.

Want personalized insights?

Run your own brand surveys and more with AtomRadar. Our data can power your brand development.

Get Started

Schedule a Consultation

×

Need data now?

Run your own surveys and discover deep insights with Atom Surveys

Get Started

About The Author

Thom Davies

Thom Davies is a researcher at AtomRadar and content strategist for Atom.com. His background in quantitative and qualitative analysis is the foundation for data-led brand strategy.

View All Posts