Content uploaded by Alexander G Schauss
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Alexander G Schauss
Content may be subject to copyright.
The Physiological Effect of Color on the Suppression of Human Aggression: Research on Baker-Miller Pink
Abstract
It is hypothesized that a newly discovered color, Baker-Miller Pink, has a measurable and predictable effect on reducing physiological variables associated with aggression in subjects of normal intelligence. Studies at one U.S. Naval correctional facility, two California county correctional centers, and two state and federal psychiatric hospitals confirm these preliminary findings. In several controlled university studies the effect has been found to be significant but the magnitude of effect small. The effect has also been seen in both the non-visually impaired, those color-blind, and some blind subjects, suggesting a physiological mechanism. The possible physiological processes believed to be involved are unknown, however, undetermined neurochemicals in the eye communicating with the hypothalamic center as suspected. A color swatch is available and mixing directions for the color are provided, as it has been found that the precise shade is essential in accurately assessing outcomes.
... The omnipresence of colors and their associations raises the question, if color can cause specific effects on humans' perception and behavior. In the 1970s Alexander Schauss proposed a pink hue, the later called Baker-Miller pink, which he regarded to unfold a broad impact on humans within 15 minutes exposure [1]- [2]: ...
... First observations with pink colored prison detention cells seemed to support these effects [2]. As a result, prison detention cells all over the world were painted with Baker-Miller pink [3]. ...
... In addition, as the color-in-context theory [9] proposes, psychological context plays an important role in color effects. Of course, the present laboratory setting differs completely from a real-life prison setting, for which Schauss [2] reported results of calming and aggression reducing effects of Baker-Miller pink. Nevertheless, this is not the first study which fails in replicating the proposed effects, even in the same context [3], arguing against a specific prison context effect. ...
Besides aesthetic aspects, color can have impact on human perception and behaviour. A special pink hue, the so-called Baker-Miller pink, is assumed to induce calming effects. In this study, we evaluated pink and white lighting conditions with N = 29 subjects, through tests of attention, measurements of skin conductance and emotional state ratings. With an exposure time of 15 minutes including measurements, no color effect was found in skin conductance and attentional performance. There was also no difference in ratings of emotional valence and arousal between the two lighting conditions. Although, subjects rated Baker-Miller pink light significantly less activating than white light. A significant sex effect showed that women preferred pink light more than men. These results indicate that there are indeed differences in subjective perception of white and Baker-Miller pink light although they cannot be found in objective measures of physiological and cognitive processes.
... where Fs is the sampling frequency (512 Hz), and we used delta (1-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), beta (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), low gamma , and high gamma for the lower and upper bound. For Event-Related Potential (ERP) analysis, we first applied a band-pass filter defined by cutoffs at 0.1 Hz and 30 Hz, exhibiting a roll-off rate of 12 dB/octave. ...
... Furthermore, Figure 4B-left shows the power average for black, white, and RGB color in beta-band frequency (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). It is evident that immediately after the stimulus onset, the power of white and RGB increases compared to the baseline, while black does not exhibit this level of power increase. ...
Background: Color perception is vital in many aspects of human behavior. It is tremendously engaged in the early stage of information processing to accelerate attention. Several studies focused on different aspects of the psychological effect of colors, which showed that color designs induce positive emotion, increased cognitive effort, and better learning outcomes compared to achromatic stimuli. Considering the importance of our daily encounters with colored stimuli, especially the RGB, black and white, studying the effect of these stimuli on brain activities is essential. Method: We investigated the significant differences in spatiotemporal brain activity of black, white, and RGB information. We used a task in which 12 participants (3 females) were presented with random black-and-white and RGB-colored stimuli in a dark room. Each stimulus was displayed on the whole screen of a CRT calibrated monitor for 10 seconds. A 64-channel EEG device was used to aquiring the EEG data. Results: Our results show that for RGB-colored stimuli, the beta power of the occipito-parietal region in early period (85 - 120 ms after stimulus onset) for RGB is higher than that of black (
p
<0.05), while in late period (800 - 855 ms after stimulus onset), for RGB it is higher than that of both black and white (
p
<0.05). Moreover, the alpha power of the centro-parietal region in late period (930 - 1360 ms after stimulus onset) for RGB is higher than that of black (
p
<0.01). Finally, ITPC of alpha band in occipariatal region in the late period (840 - 920 ms after stimulus onset) for white is higher than black (
p
<0.05) and RGB (
p
<0.01). Conclusion: The results regarding brain responses to black/white and RGB stimuli, as well as beta and alpha-band differences in centro-pariatal and occipito-parietal regions provide valuable insights that can be interpretted within perception, emotional activities, and visual processes. Practical applications may span psychology, biofeedback, and BCI systems, with implications for cognitive training, rehabilitation, and human-computer interaction.
... blue and green), high wavelength colours (e.g. red, orange, and yellow) are more exciting and arousing, and induce elated mood states (Jacobs & Hustmyer Jr., 1974;Schauss, 1985). ...
... This result is in line with prior research that argues that the overall effect of packaging comes from all elements interacting with each other in a holistic manner (Orth & Malkewitz, 2008). However, the lack of a physiological effect of colours may seem inconsistent with the findings of prior studies that found colours produce emotional responses when measured with physiological measures (Jacobs & Hustmyer Jr., 1974;Schauss, 1985). A possible explanation is that in these studies the coloured stimuli were excessively overwhelming (e.g. ...
The perception of color is a fundamental cognitive feature of our psychological experience, with an essential role in many aspects of human behavior. Several studies used magnetoencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and electroencephalography (EEG) approaches to investigate color perception. Their methods includes the event-related potential and spectral power activity of different color spaces, such as Derrington-Krauskopf-Lennie and red-green-blue (RGB), in addition to exploring the psychological and emotional effects of colors. However, we found insufficient studies in RGB space that considered combining all aspects of EEG signals. Thus, in the present study, focusing on RGB stimuli and using a data-driven approach, we investigated significant differences in the perception of colors. Our findings show that beta oscillation of green compared to red and blue colors occurs in early sensory periods with a latency shifting in the occipital region. Furthermore, in the occipital region, the theta power of the blue color decreases noticeably compared to the other colors. Concurrently, in the prefrontal area, we observed an increase in phase consistency in response to the green color, while the blue color showed a decrease. Therefore, our results can be used to interpret the brain activity mechanism of color perception in RGB color space and to choose suitable colors for more efficient performance in cognitive activities.
Across the millennia, and across a range of disciplines, there has been a widespread desire to connect, or translate between, the senses in a manner that is meaningful, rather than arbitrary. Early examples were often inspired by the vivid, yet mostly idiosyncratic, crossmodal matches expressed by synaesthetes, often exploited for aesthetic purposes by writers, artists, and composers. A separate approach comes from those academic commentators who have attempted to translate between structurally similar dimensions of perceptual experience (such as pitch and colour). However, neither approach has succeeded in delivering consensually agreed crossmodal matches. As such, an alternative approach to sensory translation is needed. In this narrative historical review, focusing on the translation between audition and vision, we attempt to shed light on the topic by addressing the following three questions: (1) How is the topic of sensory translation related to synaesthesia, multisensory integration, and crossmodal associations? (2) Are there common processing mechanisms across the senses that can help to guarantee the success of sensory translation, or, rather, is mapping among the senses mediated by allegedly universal (e.g., amodal) stimulus dimensions? (3) Is the term ‘translation’ in the context of cross-sensory mappings used metaphorically or literally? Given the general mechanisms and concepts discussed throughout the review, the answers we come to regarding the nature of audio-visual translation are likely to apply to the translation between other perhaps less-frequently studied modality pairings as well.
Previous research has supported the use of virtual reality (VR) to decrease stress, anxiety, perceptions of pain, and increase positive affect. However, the effect of VR on blood pressure (BP) and autonomic function in healthy populations have not been explored. This study quantifies the effect of instructed meditation augmented by a virtual environment (VE) on BP and heart rate variability (HRV) during rest and following physical (isometric handgrip) or mental (serial sevens subtraction) stress. Sixteen healthy participants underwent all conditions, and those that responded to the stress tests were included in the analysis of stress recovery. Results showed that under resting conditions, VE had no significant effect on BP or HRV when compared to seated rest and the VE video on a 2D screen. Following serial sevens, VE maintained the increased low frequency (LF) power of HRV normalized units (n.u.)) compared to seated rest .u., ; VE maintained the decreased high frequency (HF) power of HRV .u.) compared to seated rest .u., ; and VE maintained the increased LF/HF ratio compared to seated rest , . Hence, after mental stress, VE sustains the increased sympathetic drive and reduced parasympathetic drive. VE may act as a stimulatory driver for autonomic activity and BP. Further studies are required to investigate the effect of different types of VE on BP and autonomic function.
Folklore has it that ambient color has the power to relax or arouse the observer and enhance performance when executing cognitive tasks. We picked a number of commercially available colors that allegedly have the power to alter cognitive performance and the emotional state, and exposed subjects to them while solving a battery of cognitive tasks. The colors were “Cool Down Pink”, which is said to produce relaxing effects and reduce effort, “Energy Red”, allegedly enhancing performance via increased arousal, “Relaxing Blue”, which is said to enhance attention and concentration, as well as white as a control. In a between-subjects design, a total of 170 high school students carried out five tasks (number series completion, mental rotation, and memory for word categories, word pairs, and geometrical figures) while exposed to one of the four colors. The emotional state of the subjects was measured before the beginning and at the end of the experiment. The ambient colors did not have the predicted effects, neither on cognitive performance nor on the emotional state of the participants.
Previous studies on emotional effects of color often failed to control all the three perceptual dimensions of color: hue, saturation, and brightness. Here, we presented a three-dimensional space of chromatic colors by independently varying hue (blue, green, red), saturation (low, medium, high), and brightness (dark, medium, bright) in a factorial design. The 27 chromatic colors, plus 3 brightness-matched achromatic colors, were presented via an LED display. Participants (N = 62) viewed each color for 30 s and then rated their current emotional state (valence and arousal). Skin conductance and heart rate were measured continuously. The emotion ratings showed that saturated and bright colors were associated with higher arousal. The hue also had a significant effect on arousal, which increased from blue and green to red. The ratings of valence were the highest for saturated and bright colors, and also depended on the hue. Several interaction effects of the three color dimensions were observed for both arousal and valence. For instance, the valence ratings were higher for blue than for the remaining hues, but only for highly saturated colors. Saturated and bright colors caused significantly stronger skin conductance responses. Achromatic colors resulted in a short-term deceleration in the heart rate, while chromatic colors caused an acceleration. The results confirm that color stimuli have effects on the emotional state of the observer. These effects are not only determined by the hue of a color, as is often assumed, but by all the three color dimensions as well as their interactions.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.