Colour Me Moral – “Science News”

Chan and Meng found that “it seems that people have been conditioned to see objects in white color as potentially ‘morally good’ and those in black color as potentially ‘bad.’

In the current inquiry, we would therefore hypothesize that consumers see buying a product in white color as an act that is morally good and buying a product in black color as an act that is morally bad.

If so.  . . those who buy white-colored products should feel licensed to behave less prosocially [prosocial means in ways that benefit other individuals or groups] afterward, while those who buy black-colored products should be more prosocial as they feel a need to compensate for their initial misconduct…”

The “results are consistent with our hypothesizing. . . . product colors do not only satisfy the diversity of consumer tastes but they also impact consumers’ prosocial behavior well‐beyond product choice and outside of retail domains.”

Eugene Chan and Yan Meng. 2021.  “Color Me Moral:  White and Black Product Colors Influence Prosocial Behaviors.”  Psychology and Marketing, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 212-224, https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21435