Color Psychology: Effects of Perceiving Color on Psychological Functioning in Humans
Andrew Elliot and Markus Maier review theory and research on colour and psychological functioning, beyond aesthetics. They cover the historical background and methodological problems, advances of roughly the past decade and new findings, with a focus on achievement and affiliation or attraction contexts and coverage of consumer behaviour and food and drink. They conclude that colour can carry meaning and can influence affect, cognition and behaviour, and that the field is still early: boundary conditions, moderators and generalisation to real-world settings need study before firm conceptual claims or practical recommendations are justified.
Andrew Elliot and Markus Maier review theory and research on colour and psychological functioning, beyond aesthetics. They cover the historical background and methodological problems, advances of roughly the past decade and new findings, with a focus on achievement and affiliation or attraction contexts and coverage of consumer behaviour and food and drink. They conclude that colour can carry meaning and can influence affect, cognition and behaviour, and that the field is still early: boundary conditions, moderators and generalisation to real-world settings need study before firm conceptual claims or practical recommendations are justified.
Written from the abstract as shown on the OpenAlex record (paraphrased by the fetch tool), read 2026-11-03; bibliographic details via Crossref where stated; full text not read.
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Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. (2014). Color Psychology: Effects of Perceiving Color on Psychological Functioning in Humans. Annual Review of Psychology, 65(1), 95-120. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115035.