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Color and people decision

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Colors affect people decision to buy clothes for Thai people in Bangkok
Kanyanat Luangaroonlerd
Mahidol University International Demonstration School



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Color and people decision
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Abstract
The study looked at color of the clothes that affect people decision to buy that focus
on age between 10-50 and the opinion was also examine. This research was used two
methods to collect the data. Observation was conducted on 60 people who walk around at the
clothing shop at the Circle Ratchapruk which visible by age, gender, skin, and race were
recorded. In addition, the survey was given by use online in which all participants answered
this survey question about their age, gender, how theyre shop, colors they like, and the
opinion between color and shopping. Most of teenager women were found that they like shop
for clothes more often than men, in this survey they were more men than women, but it was
not significant. Almost of participants were recorded that colors was affect their mood,
personality, and also spending their money. Results were deficient in amount of people, age
groups, and the information for research. The result was shown the different opinion between
age and gender (10-20, 21-40, 41+).
Introduction
For a long time, people have been started interest and investigate about the color that
why its effect in people life. Today people tried to find the way to make them more attractive
by clothing. It is very important to know how colors are influence by many people because in
daily life, everything is all in colorful. However, it is not obvious why people have to choose
color for their clothing. Nevertheless, colors can affect peoples moods and can tell about
their personality. This paper will focus on identifying what kind of clothing colors people
choose in Bangkok and discussing how colors are related to peoples lifestyle especially
when shopping for clothes.
Literature Review
Color and People Spending
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Color and people decision
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The color of cloth might affect peoples decision to spend their money. According to
Alpert opinions (N, D) color can subconsciously connect with feelings. First, Black color
can make an inexpensive things seem more upscale (para. 1). Second, Blue color can make
people feel secure about that shop. Third, Burgundy color, is the of the rich, the symbol of
luxury. Fourth, Green, many employ use this color to attract customer. Another one is
Orange, this color show about impartiality that also makes people see a good value. The last
one is the most favorites color of girl; Scientists found that Pink can slow an endocrine
system. Moreover It can also influence your wallet because it can relax and less injurious
with your cash.
Color and Spiritual
For choosing the color for a cloth that people wear in a daily day. Color that people
choose might be affecting the spiritual that it too vague to describe. Its feature in three subtle;
Sattva, Raja and Tama. According to spiritualsearchfoundation (2013), they identify the color
that Helpful being a positive effect but Harmful being a negative effect (p. 1, para.
2).White color is in Sattva mean that this color be the most helpful. Inferior to white, it is Blue
color, this be more helpful. Pink is also in Sattva, its helpful. These three colors are kind of
positive spiritually. Red is in Raja, it not certainly helpful or harmful. The last two colors in
Tama are Brown and Black, these colors both harmful or affect a negative spiritually.
Color and mood
The color of cloth that people wear might be affecting their mood such as calm,
depressed, etc. Those colors have a different affect that some people dont know.
SpiritualBridge (2014, p. 1, para. 3) suggest that when people wear the cloth, first the red cloth
it might affect to make their feeling be positive, its kind of romance and power color.
Second, blue clothes are helps people relax and calm down. Third, yellow cloth can infuse a
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Color and people decision
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creative thinking, make people feel happy and it also take people feeling up when they are
sad. Fourth, Black cloth, this color is a bit serious, it a color of strong color that many
businessman always wear because it might be a sign of an authority. Another Purple clothes,
it can make people appear well-bred and good regality. The last one is Green color, when
people see its can make they calm and it effect on stress situation.
Color and mental health
In normally, people like colorful and they are choosing their cloth just their favorite
color. So if those color are too much, it might affect people mental health as well. According
to Lucia (2006) recommended. First, she said that if people wear too much Black color, it is
color of power and leader, but it can make you feel depressed (p. 1, para. 1). Second, if too
much violet, its can make people jumble or disoriented. Third, if too much Blue, its can
make you feel cold, sad, and depressed. Fourth, too much Green, its can make person who
are in bad emotion feel worse. Fifth, too much Red, it can make people disturb and want to
fight any time. Sixth, too much Orange, this color can make people who in a nervous feeling
have more upset. The last one is Pink, its can make people feel sleepy.
Color and personality
Nowadays, colors are related in people life. For exam Color of the cloth that people
choose, its can also tell their personality of that person. According to Vakil (2013) every
people have their favorite color and different personality. First, Red color, this color can tell
that people who wear red are ambitious, uncomplicated, etc. (p. 1, para. 1). Second, Orange,
those person are funny, great social and also dramatizes. Third, Green, it tells about
peacefulness, hope, harmony, etc. Fourth, Blue, it kind of softly, patient, compassionate. Fifth
color is Pink; this color is symbol of calm, loving, caring, etc. Sixth, White, this color is very
popular in various ages that tell their personality is neat, sensible, confident, etc. The last
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Color and people decision
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color is Yellow; people can represent or show their personality like happiness, wisdom, and
joy.
Participants
Survey
The forty participants were surveyed for this study; there are 20 people of teenager
(10-20) and 20 of adult (21-50). Most of participants chosen the choice depend on their
personality, age, and gender.
Observation
The observations were focus on people who like shopping. There are 60 people in age
of 10-50 that are observed. They choosing clothes color by their skin but not depend on they
age.
Methods
Survey
The survey was managed on the color of clothing of teenager at the school
(Assumption College Thonburi) in Bangkok on Wednesday afternoons in April 9, 2014. The
student who age between 10-20 and their parents or teacher who age between 21-50 were
asked for the survey. Those participants were asked question about their opinion about colors
and clothes.
Observation
The observation was conducted on ratchapruk. The Qualitative data was recorded
about the color which teenager and adult whose age between 10-50 were choosing to wear.
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Color and people decision
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Skin and Gender of those participants were also recorded in the Friday afternoon in March
21, 2014 at the pancake cafe in the circle observation.
Results
Observation
According to the graph, Black&Write colors are most popular all of age that was
recorded. And the graph was shown that only one participant whose age between 13-15
women wear white shirt (see in figure 1).

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Color and people decision
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In the observation, many participants were adult whose age between 20-30 because its time
for them to shop or have some free time. In figure 2, the popular colors of men might be
black or blue, only one of participants between 13-15 wear black shirts. And The pink color
was believed that it was color of girls or women.
Survey
Question: How does color affect people decision to buy clothes?
Gender
Figure1: The number of respondents for
the survey separate by gender.
Male 29 56%
Female 23 44%


Age
Figure2: The age of people who did the
survey.
10-20 42 81%
21-30 2 4%
31-40 2 4%
41+ 6 12%
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Color and people decision
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Do you shop often?
Figure3: The percentage of
number people who like to
shop.
Which of the following colors do you
like most?
Figure4: The most popular colors of the clothes
that people wear.
Red 4 8%
White 5 10%
Black 10 19%
Green 6 12%
Blue 18 35%
Pink 6 12%
Yellow 3 6%
How do you shop for clothes?
Figure5: Number of people that shop
in different way.
Yes 38 73%
No 14 27%
By colors 4 8%
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Color and people decision
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Does the color or interior of the shop affect you to walk in?
Figure6: show that color of the shop
affect people to walk in or not.
Yes 40 77%
No 12 23%

Do you think colors can affect your mood?
Figure7: show that can color affect
people mood.
Yes 42 81%
No 10 19%
Number of people who answer per day
By Design 31 60%
By brand 9 17%
Others 8 15%
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Color and people decision
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The total of people who responses for this survey was 52 (56% Male, 44% Female). The
results showed that 73% of people like to shop (see in figure 3). In every people who shop
they were shop in different way, most of them were shop by design (N=31, 60%). When
asked about the favorite colors, most of them choose blue (N=18, 35%) and second one was
black (10, 19%). For shopping it have many thing that affect or related to people such as the
color or interior of the shop, according to figure 6 many people (N=40, 77%)agree that color
of the shop can made them walk in and buy some clothes and 42 people(81%) of them also
believe that color can affect their mood too. We conclude that not always color which affect
people decision to buy clothes because in normal day, the basic colors that we can see are
black and white so people dont care much about the color rather than design or brand. But
some other case is very focus about color because it relates to their personality and also affect
the temper such as black can make people feel hot.
Limitations
Survey
There were limitations in the survey for this study. The first one was the number of
respondent was in medium (52 people) in sample size but it was biased on the age of
respondent. Most of them were 10-20 age range; there were only 10 people whose age
between21-41 conducted in this survey. The survey respondents were restricting to the social
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Color and people decision
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group such as people who played online; the survey was selected on the people in MUIDS
and another school, so there were probably some lurking variable there. The result based on
how people can understand the question and told the truth. The gender has a little bias as well
because there were 29 women of 23 male in the online, people might give an unreliable data.
This survey asked question about how people shop for clothes based on colors. Everyone had
the same questions. Most of them not choosing clothes depended on colors. Most of people
believe that colors have meaning and also affect their mood.
Observation
In observation, the location of the observation was Pancake Caf; the people there
might have finished work and had time to go shopping. There were more adults than
teenagers that were different from the survey, therefore it is difficult to collect data from the
survey. The number of participants was 60 people; there were only 16 men. The observation
was looking for the colors which people usually wear.
Researcher Limitations
Survey
This survey was used online in this study; the people who have conducted this survey
were the social group such as people who played Facebook, Line, instragram. The time spent
on creating the survey form and sending the survey to friends, adults, and the students in
other schools was enjoyable. Some adults couldnt understand the English language; they
were surely helped to fill in the form. So it was very pleasant to carry out this survey.
Observation
In the observation, people there were had free time to go shopping or have finished
work. In that time, people was walking pass the Pancake caf and were noted in the
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Color and people decision
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observation about colors which their usually wear. It took 1-2 hours on this observation and it
was biased as well because people who wear black and white were noted more than other
colors that not every people who walk pass were observed.
Implication
Survey
The results of the survey suggested that most of people think that color was related to
many things such as mood and personality; it also has meaning, but one of the answers
showed that people choosing design rather than colors. However, it was biases on the age of
respondents that only 10 people of 52 were adults; it was possible trends focusing on only
one social group, so it was difficult to generalize the results. The results were inconclusive
because colors did not much affect people who care for design. Based on the Literature
Review, the results suggested that color of clothes might affect peoples decision to spend
their money for example, Black color can make an inexpensive things seem more upscale.
One possible reason for this was the colors related to people decision in kind of spending and
personality. If this study were to be repeated, people was survey not only in Bangkok and the
age, gender, social status should be related on the survey.
Observation
According to the results , there were focus on the adults whose age between 21-
50.The most popular colors that people choose to wear were black and white, the appearance
of them were not care for design, therefore it was difficult to put this information to the
survey because it was different on age and gender. If this study could do the research again,
the observation and the survey were planned and were relate in age, gender, the question, and
research more information.
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Conclusion
This paper has shown that colors are affected people decision in some way because as
the result people were choosing clothes according to design or brand. Although this research
was not able to determine the effect of gender or age on color choice, the results suggested
that there may be a relationship between color and personality.
Reference
Alpert, Y. (Accessed on: 2014, March 8). How Color Affects Your Spending. Retrieved from
http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/money/color-psychology-
00100000097166/index.html
Spiritual Science Research Foundation (Accessed on: 2014, March 8). How colours affect us
spiritually. Retrieved from
http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritualresearch/spritualscience/how-
colours-affects-us
Spiritualbridge.Org (2014, February 20). How the Clothing You Wear Affects Your Mood.
Retrieved from http://www.spiritualbridge.org/blog/health-fitness/choosing-your-
clothes-how-the-clothing-you-wear-affects-your-mood/#.UzOka8U5OTM
Lucia, L. (2006, June 10). How much does the variety of colors affect your mind and body.
Retrieved from http://www.catholic.org/news/hf/home/story.php?id=21529
Vakil, E. (2013, July 26). Color and Personality. Retrieved from
http://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/color-and-personality-122608-1.htm#