Years ago, I recall hearing a report claiming that red cars were involved in significantly more accidents than other-hued autos. The reasoning behind this phenomenon was that the color red seemed to bring out the aggression in drivers… those behind the wheel as well as those “competing” with them in traffic.
A less, um, romantic — but more scientific — interpretation is that red is one of the less visible colors. According to the AAA Foundation,
The color red is perceived as black at night. Also, people have particularly poor peripheral detection of red shades (Schuman 1991).
In any event, a recent research project in Auckland, New Zealand reveals some different conclusions. According to this study, silver vehicles are the safest, and brown, black and green vehicles are the least safe.
Now, one obvious question is whether the driving habits of pastoral Auckland are applicable in any fashion whatsoever to those in the frantic USA. I also wonder about the results if the study had been expanded to report all accidents, not just those where an occupant was either hospitalized or killed (a rather macabre bit of methodology, if you ask me).
Nevertheless, the fact that different colors mean different things and elicit different responses is indisputable. Color Matters is an extensive website devoted exclusively to exploring the role color plays in many aspects of our lives. One of the more interesting features is the Global Color Survey, a list of 20 questions which cover the waterfront, from “Which color do you associate with the deity (God) in your culture?” to “Which color do you associate with nausea?”
According to the website, more than 30,000 people from around the world have taken the survey, and it’s interesting to see how your personal preferences and perceptions match up with that “global sample.”
Just for the record, in the survey results silver is the color most often associated with technology. Could it be that silver cars are therefore safer because of our modern, enlightened desire to revere and worship Technology, and therefore we avoid crashing into silver cars like devout Hindus would avoid collisions with cows? I smell a lucrative government research grant in the making!
[You can place the blame for this post on an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.]
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I went from reading your post about color with interest, to totally laughing at the technology-worshipping-hindus we safe drivers have become!
The url for colormatters didn’t work when I clicked through–it did work when I cut off the stuff after .com .
Alexandra, the link works for me, as is…how strange. I’m trying to avoid bothering folks with the site’s useless splash screen.