Wear red for successful negotiations
People who wear red during negotiations do better, Tilburg University researcher Daphne Hachmang says in her graduate research.
Daphne Hachmang, PhD student with the faculty of Humanities, conducted her colour experiment among 96 persons, including 48 men and 48 women. Hachmang: “I chose for test subjects that are not professionals in negotiation because professionals automatically do better than people without experience.”
The test subjects – some in white t-shirts, some in red t-shirts – were asked to sell or buy coffee. Both buyers and sellers in red achieved better results than the test subjects in white.
After she had read about the influence of colour, Hachmang became curious about the influence during negotiations. “Colour has an influence on emotion, behavior and functioning. The colour red can have a positive influence, a survey amongst soccer-players showed. Test subjects judged soccer players in red shirts as better players than the ones in white shirts. However, colour can also have a negative effect, an IQ test showed. Test subjects that saw a red screen before they started their IQ test, did worse than test subjects that had seen a grey screen. ”
“The influence of colour when people are negotiating, however, was never tested before, while negotiating is something that we do daily”, says Hachmang. [MW/transl.YV]
