Drunk Tank Pink And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave

In the late 1970's researchers discovered that a particular  shade of pink had a calming effect on people. Soon  after, drunk tanks  and even  some colleges visitors' locker rooms were being  painted pink to try to take advantage of this fact.

Marketing and psychology professor Adam Atler shares the profound  effects  that hidden cues like color have  on us, so we can  mitigate  their effect or use  them to our benefit. According to Atler, these cues tend to reside in three separate realms.

 

  1. In Our Heads

Labels  are a powerful hidden  cue  that can  cause us to react  very strongly. Consider today's typical reaction to names like Adolf or Ebenezer. Or the likely socio-economic categorization of people with names like Ricky and Bobby vs. tonier names like Sander and Guillaume.

Another example comes from a study that looked at the performance of 3rd graders who were randomly chosen and described as "early bloomers". Teachers reacted to this label by devoting extra energy to these students and the result was a 10% increase in their IQ.

 

  1. In Our Culture

Our cultural background has  a strong  influence  on how we perceive people.  For example, Westerners are more likely to strive for "Individualism" while East  Asians usually value "collectivism."

For example, while ads  in Korea typically promote the values of tradition, conformity, and following trends, most ads  in the US emphasize choice,  freedom, and uniqueness.

 

  1. In Our Physical Environment

Our physical  world contributes to some of the most striking quirks in our behavior. Consider the effect of weather on our mood and the mood of others. Civil conflicts in tropical regions are twice as likely to erupt  during warmer  El Nino years compared to cooler  La Nina years.

Weather also affects  the stock market, where  history shows that they are more likely to rise on sunny  days  and fall on gloomy ones.

 

By Adam Alter