IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0134033.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Red Color and Risk-Taking Behavior in Online Environments

Author

Listed:
  • Timo Gnambs
  • Markus Appel
  • Aileen Oeberst

Abstract

In many situations red is associated with hazard and danger. As a consequence, it was expected that task-irrelevant color cues in online environments would affect risk-taking behaviors. This assumption was tested in two web-based experiments. The first study (N = 383) demonstrated that in risky choice dilemmas respondents preferred the less risky option when the displayed university logo was in red (versus gray); but only when both choice alternatives were at least moderately risky. The second study (N = 144) replicated these results with a behavioral outcome: Respondents showed more cautious behavior in a web-based game when the focal stimuli were colored red (versus blue). Together, these findings demonstrate that variations in the color design of a computerized environment affect risk taking: Red color leads to more conservative choices and behaviors.

Suggested Citation

  • Timo Gnambs & Markus Appel & Aileen Oeberst, 2015. "Red Color and Risk-Taking Behavior in Online Environments," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-12, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0134033
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0134033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0134033
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0134033&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0134033?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kareklas, Ioannis & Muehling, Darrel D. & King, Skyler, 2019. "The effect of color and self-view priming in persuasive communications," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 33-49.
    2. Hoon S. Choi & Darrell Carpenter & Myung S. Ko, 2022. "Risk Taking Behaviors Using Public Wi-Fi™," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 965-982, June.
    3. Ma, Marshall Xiaoyin & Noussair, Charles N. & Renneboog, Luc, 2022. "Colors, Emotions, and the Auction Value of Paintings," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    4. Ma, X., 2019. "Essays on alternative investments," Other publications TiSEM 7f4d5b36-96cb-4eac-ae91-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Martinez, Luisa M. & Rando, Belén & Agante, Luisa & Abreu, Ana Maria, 2021. "True colors: Consumers’ packaging choices depend on the color of retail environment," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    6. Liêu, L.M. & Pelster, M., 2020. "Framing and the disposition effect in a scopic regime," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 175-185.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0134033. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.