Our research to date has focused primarily on the color red in
achievement contexts. Our hypothesis is that red carries the
meaning of danger in such contexts, specifically the psychological
danger of failure (Elliot, Maier, Moller, et al., 2007). One
source of this red–danger link is presumed to be teachers’ use of
red ink to mark students’ mistakes and errors. This specific association
is likely grounded in a more general societal association
between red and danger where negative possibilities are salient,
such as stop signs and warning signals.