Color For Profit. Louis Cheskin

retention power, high color preference, excellent image and color representation, plus easy eye-movement combine in making this point-of-sale poster a potent selling tool.

Strong visibility, great retention power, high color preference, excellent image and color representation, plus easy eye-movement combine in making this point-of-sale poster a potent selling tool.

Conditioned Reflexes

      Human behavior is conditioned by habit and habit is as regular in its pattern as a set of gears and wheels driven by a motor. Evidence that behavior patterns are formed through habit and association has been most effectively brought out by J. P. Pavlov, the Russian scientist, author of the theory of “conditioned reflex.” The theory is based on very extensive experiments with dogs.

      Pavlov regularly gave a dog a piece of meat immediately after the ringing of a bell. The association of the bell ringing and the meat eating was repeated until after a certain period of time the ringing of the bell without the meat produced a flow of saliva in the dog. The bell and the meat became synonymous. This is a “conditioned reflex.”

      However, “conditioned reflexes” can be inhibited or changed. If, after a dog has been conditioned to associate the ringing of a bell with eating meat, the bell continues to be rung but is followed either by no meat or by some painful treatment for a continued length of time, the saliva soon ceases to flow. This is an “inhibitory reflex,” which if repeated too often can lead to neurosis.

      Human beings are conditioned from infancy by their environment. The conditioning is neither voluntary nor conscious. A new-born child acts freely and instinctively. If we do not interfere with the infant’s spontaneous behavior and gratify his natural needs for food and fondling (love), the infant may grow up to be a very self-indulgent, selfish, and antisocial individual but he would not be in danger of becoming an inhibited individual. However, in order to make the child conform to family or group behavior patterns, the parents begin to inhibit the infant by restricting his spontaneous behavior and therein lies the danger of the child withdrawing from his environment into himself.

      Excessive inhibition is the road to neurosis. Normally, there is a near balance between self-expression and inhibition. The less inhibited individual is called an extrovert; the overly inhibited person we describe as an introvert. Completely or nearly completely introverted or extroverted people are abnormal and since such individuals do not often go to stores to make purchases we will not discuss them here.

      Normally, people are at the height of happiness when they express themselves freely. Actually it means that we are happiest when we do not have to think or exert any kind of effort or control over our emotional expression. However, your freedom of expression may inhibit your neighbor’s freedom of expression. And your neighbor’s or your brother’s freedom of expression may inhibit your freedom of expression. Therefore, we are all inhibited to some degree first by the family and then by society. In other words, normal people have dual behavior patterns, instinctive, original, libidinous and conditioned reflexes.

      The love for red is normally instinctive. A negative reaction to black is normally instinctive. However, a person can be conditioned to react against red or, on the other hand, to react pleasurably to black.

      Red expresses light and warmth; it stimulates. But suppose each time red was put before a new-born child (or any creature that has color sight, a bird for example, dogs do not see color) it was accompanied or followed by a pin prick or other type of painful experience, the child would grow up with a strong dislike for red.

      Black by itself produces few pleasurable sensations. It is not only non-stimulating but inhibiting. However, suppose a newborn infant were given food in the dark, never had his hunger satisfied when there was light and suppose the infant were continuously fondled or given attention by the mother in the dark but never when there was light. Black or dark would then become a pleasurable sensation. This person would, in other words, have a “conditioned reflex” to associate black with pleasure.

      Mothers don’t make a practice of wearing red robes while pricking their infants with pins and they generally prefer to sleep at night and feed and fondle their babies in the day time. Therefore, people normally enjoy looking at red and react unfavorably to black.

      For physical as well as psychological reasons, any color (or object) looks better when placed next to or framed with black. Black plays an important role by negation; it makes adjacent colors more vibrant and more beautiful. A black gown is, therefore, flattering to a woman particularly if she has a clear complexion or applies cosmetics appropriately.

      There are, however, great numbers of people who have been conditioned to dislike red. They are greatly inhibited and do not have normal emotional reactions to the color. Preference tests conducted on an unconscious level show that those who were brought up in a puritanical tradition dislike red; they associate the vibrant red with immorality or lack of good taste.

      Originally, when Puritanism was a social movement, the association of red with moral looseness was on a conscious level. That is, it was a deliberate association made to discourage emotional sensation and expression.

      Generally, the association is no longer conscious. It merely shows up in the dislike for red or in a negative reaction to red. In other words, persons who have been brought up in a puritanical environment have an “inhibitory reflex” in relation to red.

      The attraction to “period furniture” and ornate design is a good example of a “conditioned reflex.” In other words, if you were brought up in a happy home with Baroque interior decoration you are likely to continue to have a preference for Baroque or other type ornate interiors because deep in the unconscious the pleasant experiences of your childhood are associated with this type of decoration.

      The conditioning you received during the years from the day of your birth is called by some researchers the unconscious mind, by others the subconscious and by still others “conditioned reflex.” Whatever they are called, they are basic behavior patterns. These behavior patterns determine the individual’s choice of colors, of objects and ideas.

      Pavlov changed the conditioned reflexes of dogs and there are several ways for accomplishing this with humans. Psychoanalysis is one method for bringing the unconscious “conditioned reflex” into a conscious state, thus helping to change or eliminate it. The psychoanalytical approach is generally reserved for highly neurotic individuals or for persons abnormally inhibited or frustrated.

      The most effective way for changing the conditioned reflexes of the great masses of “normal” people is by advertising—continuous and constant repetition of psychologically potent words, images, and colors. (Propaganda has also accomplished “miracles” in converting conditioned reflexes into new behavior patterns.)

      We are generally not conscious of the images and colors around us. Most aspects of our environment remain in a state of mere sensation. We experience the sensations on an unconscious level; that is, we are usually completely unaware of them.

      You may not even be aware of a billboard advertisement that meets your eyes every morning on the way to work. Nevertheless, this billboard is being impressed on your unconscious mind. If the colors and images are in themselves pleasing and satisfying, this pleasurable sensation becomes associated with the advertised product. You are thus developing a favorable conditioned reflex toward the product because it is associated with pleasing colors and images. You are forming a new phase or reforming an old phase of your behavior pattern. The first thing you know you will try a new brand of cigarettes. You have no reason; that is, no conscious reason for this change. The billboard on the way to your office did its job.

      The housewife has been buying a certain brand of Brown ’n Serve packaged in an ordinary carton since it first came on the market. Another bakery has recently put Brown ’n Serve in an attractive container. For some time she may continue to ignore the attraction