Color’s Effect on Behavior

Author Adam Alter talks about how the color pink affects human behavior in this interesting behavioral change speech. Alter tells viewers that drunk tanks in jails were previously painted pink because it had a calming effect on aggressive prisoners. It’s interesting to think about the way that a color can change a person’s mood entirely.

Alter has written a book on this subject entitled ‘Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces That Shape Our Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviors.’ The book discusses various other settings in which this calming pink theory has been tested out. Some of these locations include school hallways and locker rooms. Other colors have been tested out as well, but pink seems to have the strongest effect in terms of changing one’s mood, or pacifying aggressive people.