Here’s an excerpt from an older article from the Washington Post, which — as an aside — discusses some of the differences in how colour use affects the placebo effect:

“One of the most important things about a pill is [its] color,” said Daniel Moerman, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan-Dearborn who has studied the placebo and nocebo effects across different cultures. “That seems to be fairly widespread.”

But the mind is a funny thing, and generic responses to color go just so far in explaining the placebo or nocebo response. Consider this: In Italy, Moerman says, blue placebos made excellent sleeping pills for women but had the opposite effect on men.

The apparent reason? “The Italian national football team’s color is azzurri,” he said. “Blue.”

I’m going to place this in the “interesting, but needs more research” category. Still, an interesting notion of how perceptions can be different for different cultures.

Tags: Design