Lexie Fisher & Allyson Gilton

Experimental Report: Analyzing How Color Choices Affect

Perception

December 6, 2021
Introduction and Objectives:

Networking is an essential part of business. When at networking events, or even just

meeting somebody new, business cards are exchanged. This small piece of paper is used to

describe and help pitch the owner to potential employers, customers, and clients.

Purpose of Study

The purpose of this study was to analyze business card design. The researchers wanted to

analyze how the design of a business card can affect how people perceive the owner of the card.

Specifically, the design element of color was analyzed. Does color affect how people perceive a

working professional? Do brighter colors equate a person with being unprofessional? Are neutral

colors boring?

Variables

The independent variable was the background color of the business card. IV 1 was the

business card with a neutral tan background color. IV 2 was t/he business card designed with a

bright, light blue color.

There were two dependent variables. The first was the perceived professionalism of the

owner of the card based on the card design. The second was the likelihood to contact the owner

of the business card.

Hypothesis

Hypothesis #1:

Null hypothesis: There will be no significant difference in the mean score of “perceived

level of professionalism” of the owner of the blue colored business card and the owner of

the neutral colored business card.

 Research hypothesis: The owner of the business card in the neutral color will have a

higher mean score of “perceived level of professionalism” than the owner of the blue

card.

Hypothesis #2:

Null hypothesis: There will be no significant difference in the mean score of “likeliness

to contact the owner” of the neutral business card and the owner of the blue business

card.

Research hypothesis: The owner of the business card in the neutral color will have a

higher mean score of “likeliness to contact the owner” than the owner of the blue card.

Methods

Experiment Set Up

To test the hypothesis, the researchers conducted an experiment. Specifically, the

researchers utilized A/B testing. First, the researchers used the program Canva to design two

business cards. Each card was exactly the same: same size, same information, same font, same

font size, same design. A gender neutral name “Pat Smith” was chosen to try and lessen gender

bias. The only difference between the cards was the independent variable, which was the

background color. Card #1 was given IV1 - the neutral tan color. Card #2 was given IV2 - the

bright blue color.

 Card #1 Card #2

A survey was created using the program Qualtrics. Each respondent would view only one

of the business cards. Then, they were asked to answer questions regarding what they saw. The

randomizer feature on Qualtrics allowed each respondent to be randomly assigned one of the

independent variables.

Questions

The survey began with a consent question. The consent question explained the topic and

purpose of the survey and asked the respondents to give their consent to participate. The consent

question also made the respondent aware that they could skip any question and provided contact

information. The survey used forced response so that the respondents had to provide an answer

before they were exposed to the actual survey questions. The survey utilized skip logic, so if the

respondent disagreed to participate they were then taken to the end of the survey.

The next question came after the respondents viewed the business cards. It asked “what

was the first element of the card you noticed.” Its aim was to measure if the respondents were

even noticing the color at all. Next, respondents were asked “How professional do you view Pat

Smith on a scale of 1-10”. The question used a likert scale, with 1 representing very

unprofessional and 10 representing very professional. This question was related directly to the
first hypothesis. The intended purpose was to measure if the differences in color would result in

different perceptions of professionalism. After that, respondents were questioned “In the

competitive market you may receive handfuls of business cards. In your pile, does this card stand

out?”. This was to measure if the blue card, being a bolder color, would be more likely to stand

out. Next, the respondents were asked to “Rank the following characteristics of "Pat Smith"

based on their business card on a scale of 1-10? (1= not possessing the trait, 10=highly

possessing the trait?” The characteristics included trustworthiness, intelligence, aggressiveness,

and arrogance. The question used a sliding scale. Its intent was to measure if positive traits

(trustworthiness and intelligence) or negative traits (aggressiveness and arrogance) were more

likely to be associated with the owner of one card or the other. After that, the respondents were

asked “Would you purchase a business card in this exact design for yourself?” in a yes/no

question. This was to measure if the respondents liked the design of the card. Then, they were

asked which element of the card they would change in a multiple choice question (options

included font, background color, information presented, or other). The option “other” included a

text box. This was to measure if the respondents wanted to change the background color if they

were exposed to the blue card. The next question was “Regardless if you are happy with your

home or on a house hunt, how likely would you be to contact Pat Smith to be your real estate

agent on a scale of 1-5?” This was a sliding scale question. It was to measure if people were

more or less likely to contact the owner depending on the background color they viewed.

The final part of the survey included the demographic questions. First, the respondents

were asked if they have used a real estate agent in the past to gauge if that influenced their

decisions. Other demographics collected included age, gender, and income. The final question
asked what device the respondent took the survey on. Options included cell phone, tablet, laptop,

and desktop. This was asked in case the survey appeared differently on different devices.

Sampling

The survey was sent out to friends and family of the researchers.The survey was sent via

a link through text or email. Participants had about one week to complete the survey. 24

respondents participated and completed the survey. 48% of the respondents were male and 52%

were female.

The sample of ages ranged from 19-58 years old. The average age for survey respondents

was 37.42 years old.

 48% of the respondents took the survey on a laptop, 24% on a cell phone, 20% on a

tablet, and 8% on a desktop.

Results

The researchers wanted to know what the first element of the card the respondents

noticed. The largest majority of respondents, 48%, first noticed the name “Pat Smith” first. 32%

noticed the color of the card first. 8% noticed the company name. 4% noticed the balanced layout

and another 4% noticed the font first. 4% noticed nothing.

 The researchers also wanted to know if the color of the business card affected the

perception of professionalism in the owner of the card.This was the dependent variable

“professionalism”. As a reminder, participants ranked the perceived level of professionalism of

the owner of the business card based on the business card design. This was on a scale of 10, with

1 representing highly unprofessional and 10 representing highly professional. The 11 participants

who received the independent variable 1 (neutral/tan color) (M=7.55, SD=5.79) compared to the

14 respondents who received the independent variable 2 (blue color) (M=5.79, SD=2.547)

perceived the owner of the business card as being more professional.

An independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the means between the

independent variables and the dependent variable “Professionalism”. The t value is 1.802 with 23

degrees of freedom. The p-value is 0.042. The mean difference is 1.760. Because the p-value is

less than 0.05, it can be concluded that the results are statistically significant. The difference in

means is likely due to something other than chance.

 Additionally, the researchers wanted to know if the color of the business card would have

an affect on their likelihood to contact the owner of the card. This was the dependent variable

“likely to contact”. The 11 participants who received the independent variable 1 (neutral/tan

color) (M=3.45, SD=1.128) compared to the 14 respondents who received the independent

variable 2 (blue color)(M=2.71, SD=1.541) were more likely to say that they would contact the

owner of the business card.

An independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the means between the

independent variables and the dependent variable “Likely to contact”. The t value is 1.336 with

23 degrees of freedom. The p-value is 0.0098. The mean difference is 0.740. Because the p-value

is greater than 0.05, it can be concluded that the results are not statistically significant. The

difference in means is likely due to chance and not the difference in variables.

The researchers also wanted to analyze if the respondents would use this business card

design for themselves. 64% of the respondents would not purchase a business card in this design

for themselves and 36% would purchase. This is almost two-thirds of the participants stating

they would not purchase this card design.

 The researchers also wanted to know if the business card design would stand out. 52% of
participants said the business card does not stand out and 48% of the participants said it would.

Discussion

For hypothesis #1, the null hypothesis is rejected, and the research hypothesis is accepted.

The mean score of professionalism reported by the participants who were exposed to the neutral

color card was higher compared to the mean score of those that saw the blue card. This was

statistically significant. This could have been for several reasons. People may view the brighter,

blue color as reflecting unprofessionalism because of societal standards. Society trains people to

think of bright colors as being unprofessional. Additionally, because the profession was a real

estate agent they may have thought of their own real estate agent used. If they used neutral

colors, the participants may have found the blue shocking. Neutral colors are likely a more

professional color, especially in the context of a real estate agent. This could potentially mean

that when designing a business card, it would be best to stay away from brighter colors. If the

profession was more creative, like a graphic designer, the blue may have seen more professional.
 For hypothesis #2, the null hypothesis is accepted, and the research hypothesis is rejected.

The owner of the business card in the neutral color did not have a statistically significant higher

mean score of likeliness to contact than the owner of the blue card. This could mean that color

did not affect if the person would be willing to call the owner. People may be focusing on other

aspects, such as information, rather than the color. Color is likely not a deciding factor if

someone is going to call someone. Also, the insignificant difference could be because the

participants did not notice the color enough. When reporting, they may not have been thinking

about the color.

Also, because the majority of participants noticed the name first, it can be assumed that

color is not as important as the name. When designing business cards, the name should be

focused on more than color. However, color is still important because it was what the second

largest majority of participants noticed first. In the end, this data shows the background color of

business cards has some effect, but it is not the most important aspect of the business card. Color

can influence the way people perceive the owner of the card, but it may not have an effect on

their actions.

Limitations

Some limitations include a small sample size. There were only 25 people who took the

survey. This limited sample size could have changed the results. If more people took the survey,

there would be more data to compare the two views of the business card too. Another limitation

that could have affected the results is what device people took the survey on. People who took

the survey on a cell phone, saw the business card sample on a smaller screen. This could have

affected the results of how professional they viewed Pat Smith to be. Perhaps, people did not
notice the color design because it was not drastic enough. Also, people may not have been

paying attention to the color since the researchers did not tell them to look at the background

color.

Further Research

Some suggestions for future research would include continuing to gather data, meaning

getting more people to take the survey. In order to be able to generalize these results, this survey

should be given to more people, so the researcher has a larger sample size to base this conclusion

on. Once researchers have a larger sample size, they can draw a more sound conclusion about the

background color of Pat’s business card. Another suggestion would be to manipulate a different

variable. Because most people noticed the name first, try changing the font or the size of the

name. Finally, the experiment could be done on other business documents, such as a resume.