In understanding associations to colors besides red, however, a broader ecological focus is useful. A blue sky is a comparatively trouble-free sky and large bodies of water are blue. For these reasons, the color blue may have acquired a positive signal value throughout our evolutionary history (Gage, 1999). Green is the color of nature, plants, and growth, which also have a positive signal value (Clarke and Costall, 2008; Lichtenfeld, Elliot, Maier, and Pekrun, 2012; Regan and Horn, 2005; Röderer and Cervinka, 2012). It is perhaps for these reasons that blue and green remind people of nature (Kaya and Epps, 2004) and carry positive connotations (Adams and Osgood, 1973; Moller, Elliot, and Maier, 2009). Ecologically, the color red is the color of spilled blood and of many poisonous animals, probably further strengthening associations of danger and threat with this color (Elliot and Maier, 2014; Humphrey, 1976).
Ecological valence theory (Palmer and Schloss, 2010) can account for stable color pre- ferences by pointing to stability in the objects possessing particular colors (e.g., brown feces, green plants). The theory, however, also allows for malleability. People have very positive implicit associations with the self (Koole and Pelham, 2003).
Treatments of the psychological impact of green often begin with green’s link to nature and natural settings (e.g., Clarke and Costall, 2008). People like nature and they like the color green (Adams and Osgood, 1973; Valdez and Mehrabian, 1994), particularly when it is more nature-like in appearance (Palmer and Schloss, 2010). Consistent with these associations, green has often been used to symbolize life, growth, and renewal in the arts and in literature (Gage, 1999), and, relatedly, green primes more appetitive, open-minded thinking styles (Lichtenfeld et al., 2012).
Ecological valence theory
Color preferences arise from people’s average affective responses to color-associated objects. An empirical test provides strong support for this theory: People like colors strongly associated with objects they like (e.g., blues with clear skies and clean water) and dislike colors strongly associated with objects they dislike (e.g., browns with feces and rotten food). Relative to alternative theories, the ecological valence theory both fits the data better (even with fewer free parameters) and provides a more plausible, comprehensive causal explanation of color preferences.
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