Flashback – Why Is Color So Important?

My very first entry of 2013 addressed the power of color in decision-making in areas as different as medication and car buying. The point of these examples was to show how Americans are influenced by superficial characteristics, an indication of problems in the dimension of perspective. These many years later the media and certain groups are again focusing on color differences, particularly skin color, treating it as more important than substance and character. It seems we have made little progress since I wrote this.

[This thought about perspective was inspired by recent medical news about the color of pills and by a slightly older story about the color of cars. Perspective is about distinguishing between what’s important and what’s trivial, hence, living according to real values rather than values imposed by society. People strong in perspective look past external appearances and tend to adopt a lifestyle based on moderation. Common examples of poor perspective include the Black Friday stampedes and the accumulation of debt from buying to satisfy our wants and impulses or to impress others.

A key lesson is that appearances are often deceptive when it comes to judging what's really important.  Nevertheless, examples abound showing how people are overly influenced by external factors, in the following cases by color alone.

The first is a health report that came out earlier this week. Studies show that when the color of medication is changed, there is a greater a tendency for people to stop taking it. This occurred 27 to 50 percent of the time, and it is not a trivial problem. “Failure to take a prescribed medication — a behavior known as non-adherence — costs $290 billion annually in additional health complications, according to the New England Healthcare Institute.” Apparently generic medication, less expensive but identical to the brand name drug, may be manufactured by several companies. They don’t coordinate with each other on the color, nor do they take great pains to maintain consistency within each company.  People look at their pills and don’t recognize them or are confused by the color. Over-reliance on visual cues causes them to make poor decisions about continuing medication.

The influence of something as superficial as color extends beyond the health field. As this article points out, “BuyingAdvice.com [has found] that if a car is not available in the preferred color, 40 percent of drivers will decide to change brands.” With all the factors involved in deciding which car to buy:  safety, reliability, fuel economy, price, warrantee, insurance costs, and others; isn’t it surprising that 40% would switch brands – Ford instead of Toyota or Kia instead of Subaru – just because they can’t find the color they want? This is especially surprising since, when sitting inside a car, it’s very difficult to tell what color the car is! The color is visible only to other people. It could be ugly green or bright pink and you’d never know it until you got out.

When making major decisions, it's critical to put substantial factors ahead of superficial ones. Based on these stories alone, color is one of those external factors that wrongly holds considerable sway in decision making. A good New Year’s resolution might be to try to be less influenced by appearance and other external factors. Maybe we can start with pills and cars and work our way up to people.]

Correcting Colorblindness?

An article in an alumni magazine caught my eye.  The headline read:  “Recent graduate focuses on myth of color-blindness correction.”  The clear implication by labeling it as a myth was that colorblindness correction was impossible, or at least not within the reach of current technology, and that some people may be wasting their money. 

The recent graduate was part of a research team investigating whether red-green color vision defects can be corrected using commercially sold glasses that filter different wavelengths.  The brief article goes on to say that this latest research has not yet been published but stated that a controlled study led to the conclusion that “not only do the glasses not help, but they can makes some aspects of color vision worse.”  (Since the findings have not yet been published, there is no way to tell the sample size or how carefully the study was designed.)  They only summarize their findings that some people are “desperate for a ‘cure’ and [this study] can potentially save people from wasting their money.”

Wasting money on myths is one of my favorite signs of problems with critical thinking, not doing the research before investing in a “miracle cure,” so I went on to investigate.

I found a Forbes article from April 2015:  A reporter decided to try the special glasses, and said yes, there was a difference.  But he added:  “As vibrant as [green] leaves and [red] bricks now appear, when presented with a color blindness test, both my brother [who is also colorblind] and I still fail it. And there’s another major issue that needs to be addressed: These things ain’t cheap. Non-prescription versions of [the seller’s] color blindness glasses range from roughly $340 to $440.”  He concludes by referring to them as a luxury item that allows some men to get the effect of seeing better color.

The ads for these glasses consist of customers raving about their personal experiences, and similar testimonials.  According to another source their “viral marketing success” has been fueled in part by a product testing program, “where would-be wearers can apply to earn a free pair through participating in certain company initiatives (like talking to the media).”

The author of that second article, who is also colorblind, gave them a try.  He was disappointed at first when he didn’t experience the overwhelming emotion he had seen in the promotional videos, but after some time he became very satisfied.  Though he still cannot pass the standard Ishihara colorblindness test, and the company clearly states the glasses will not allow this; he feels they are very helpful in, for instance, allowing him to better identify the color of green and red traffic signals.  Based on his own experience in elementary school, he thinks the glasses may help children do better at color-related tasks and not be automatically labeled by teachers as slow.  (Not all schools regularly test children for colorblindness.)

It appears the jury is still out on the colorblindness correcting glasses.  True, they don’t make it possible to pass the standard numbers-on-flashcards type of test and are quite expensive, but some who have tried them (and not been financially influenced by the company) say they have noticed a difference.  It will be interesting to see the latest scientific findings when they are finally published.