One group of participants was in a red room, the other was in a blue room. We measured mood by looking for Stroop interference for mood-congruent words. We found no main effect of room color for percent correct or reaction time on the Stroop task. Red and yellow lights produced more anxious moods than blue and green lights. However, research on this topic has been mixed.
Some studies find no effect, others find the opposite effect.
Our goal was to attempt to develop a more reliable dependent variable to see if we could clarify the relationship between room color and mood. Research has shown that Stroop interference occurs for words that match a person's psychological state. Our goal was to use a Stroop interference paradigm to measure anxiety after participants sat in a blue or red room. Room color was manipulated by placing gels over can lights in the room. We used 40 watt bulbs.