Development of the Red-Negative Association: Motivation-based behaviors
Résumé
The color red has been seen to correspond to different emotion-based motivational behaviors in adults, depending on the context (i.e., achievement vs. romance). Given that red‐meaning associations may result – at least in part – from background experience, we tested this effect in 51 children. First (Mage = 6.42, SD = 0.60) and fifth (Mage = 10.71, SD = 0.43) graders were asked to choose between sheets of paper with red or green borders to carry out two kinds of activities (i.e., evaluative vs. recreational). Analysis of the results showed that the older children tended to avoid the red-bordered paper for the evaluative tasks, whereas the younger children chose red for both kinds of activities. These findings suggest that context-driven red‐meaning associations develop across grades.