Why So Many Prison Rooms Are Painted Pink: The Shades Of Power Are In Our Minds

A few years ago, a peculiar trend began in prisons in Europe and North America. They began to paint some of the cells pink. It became so common that, in 2014, one in five prisons and police stations in Switzerland had at least one holding cell painted bright pink.

The decoration was not intended to make an aesthetic choice or criminal millennial feel more comfortable, but Putting a Famous Scientific Study from the 1970s into Practice,

In that decade, researchers Alexander Schuss Convinced a Prison The United States Navy will paint some of its cells pinkwith the theory – based on his own experiments – that Color can positively affect detainees’ behaviorto quell his movement.

The results obtained from him suggested that he was right: a memorandum prepared by the Office of Naval Personnel said that Prisoners only needed 15 minutes to be exposed to the pink cell to reduce their aggressive behavior and its potential violence.

Tests in other detention centers supported his findings, and once it was published, in 1979 and 1981, the tone he used to change the mood of prisoners in his study was found to be -473. Red Semi-Gloss Exterior Paint and 1.5 oz. interior pure white latex paint spread to prisons around the world,

Shade of Pink – Officially designated P-618, but Schauss . nominated by pink baker-miller Named after the directors of the Naval Detention Center where it was first tested – it is known by various names where it was used, from “drunk tank pink” to “fresh pink”.

But there is only one problem: Schauss’s results were never successfully replicated., “A study was conducted in 2015, conducted under properly controlled conditions, that No evidence found that pink reduces aggression“, dice Domicile JonauskiteColor researcher at the University of Vienna in Austria.

Another study conducted in Switzerland’s Justizvollzugsanstalt Poschwies, involving 59 prisoners, revealed that There was no difference between white and pink cells in the level of aggression of the prisoners.

Although the apparent calming effect of “drunken tank” pink is questionable, the speed at which it was adopted speaks volumes about the power of color deep into the human psyche. And, probably, it’s not even out of place: There is evidence that color can affect our behavior in surprising ways without us noticing.

For example, some colors may compel us to act: see research comparing a hitchhiker whose vehicle had broken down, to the number of times he was picked up by passing cars. When the broken-up passenger—actually played by one of the research team members—was wearing a red T-shirt, it was picked up more often than other colors.

Red was shown to elicit more immediate emotional responses.Although it may be because of the reason that . is referred to as Berlin-K theoryTaken from the work of a couple of American academics in the 1960s.

In short, they found that red was always the third color word to develop in about 100 languages, after black and white. The longer a word is used for a colour, the more associations, meanings and nuances it can assume., In this way the color automatically comes into effect.

However many investigation continues How color can affect human behavior they are contradictory, Some studies show that it can affect everything from mood and emotions to your heartbeat rate and even physical strength.

it was found that For example, bright red tones, Causes a great deal of excitement and can even prevent drowsiness, Experiments also suggested that monotonous tasks, such as proofreading, might be done better in red offices, while creative tasks, such as essay writing, were better done in blue rooms.

But other work has shown that Red and blue can also be distracting when trying to perform tasks., These contradictions cautioned some researchers that claims of the therapeutic and psychological benefits of various dyes should not be overemphasized, as there is not enough evidence to support them.

But there are some areas where it has been found that Color has a clear effect on our brain, For example, it can affect how we perceive other senses such as taste and taste.

one thing that gives red messagequite consistently, is sweetness, A study of more than 5,300 people around the world found that red-colored beverages were considered the sweetest, regardless of where the participants came from.

mary wrightHead of Global Taste ADM NutritionA multinational company dedicated to the manufacturing of food and beverage recalls tests a special product for strawberry flavor produced by the company. Volunteers struggled to detect changes in sweetness while tasting the product, but when Wright and colleagues They increased the red color instead of increasing the sugar content of the liquid.Participants began to say that it tasted sweeter.

“We’ve found that you can make something sweeter if it’s brighter in color”Wright says. “It’s like a bright red apple: before you bite into it, you hope it’s sweet.”

he says the fact that the color is the sharpest mind can fool both Which allowed them to reduce the sugar levels in some recipes by 10% to 20%, although the results of these tests have not been published in any academic journal to date.

However, it is important to be cautious when it comes to colors and nutrition: There is some evidence that color can change the way we experience food.But this does not necessarily affect our long-term consumption levels.

Charles SpenceA psychologist at the University of Oxford, studies how our senses interact and is the author of a book on the science of food. they claim that Much of the common effect between colour, taste and mouthfeel stems from deep social associations. Which we create in our daily life. Most of that comes from marketing and packaging, but also from the experiences of the food we eat every day.

Interestingly, color can also transmit other information to the senses. Imagine that an ad for a towel appears on this page: Immediately, tenderness is evident, almost as if you can feel it through the screen. But that perceived smoothness may not be due to the high thread count visible on the screen, but to its pastel colorleast . according to the work of Atefe Yazdanparast ArdestaniAssociate Professor at Clark University School of Management in Worcester, Massachusetts America,

“When I close my eyes and i think of tendernessFew colors come to mind; They are usually lightest, pale pink, pale blue”, he says. “That was the question I had in mind: What is the relationship between our sense of sight and our sense of touch?,

So Ardestani did some tests. They asked volunteers to write down the colors they imagined when they thought of softness and, in fact, reflected their own, leaning toward lighter tones. Next, they asked the volunteers to look at different colors, three at a time: each had similar saturation, or intensity, but varied from light to dark, When given adjectives to describe them, the lightest shade was chosen as the softest in 91.2% of cases.

But while lighter tones may suggest tenderness, Color intensity suggests amount, According to Karen Castle, psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States and one of the world’s leading color researchers. she warns that In data graphs, or maps, the colors chosen – more specifically, their intensity – can manipulate the way that information is interpreted.,

“People assume that Darker colors represent larger quantitiesWhich used well in most of the pandemic maps I’ve seen: More cases or deaths, indicated with darker colorsHe says, citing the work of himself and others to show how we are behaviorally conditioned to make that link.

Schloss warns that this type of join can lead to problems. If the data is presented with an excessive amount of light colors, can be misunderstood what is being seen.

If a map is visible on the screen for a fraction of a second, “darkness will be interpreted as more, not more light,” even if that data doesn’t actually show. “All this suggests that color is much more powerful than we think”Schloss concludes.