Bengart and Vogt evaluated how the colors used to present options influence choices made. They report that “Recent eco-labeling research suggests that labels that use traffic light colors to communicate an evaluation of product attributes are more effective in guiding consumer choices toward environmentally friendlier products than those that merely provide quantitative information. . . . We investigated the influence of labels' color scheme on consumers' preferences for environmentally friendly electricity. . . . participants chose between electricity products differing in price and carbon emissions. The products had labels that classified carbon emissions as low, medium, or high based on either traffic light colors, grayscale colors, or text. . . . traffic light labels increased the choice share of low-emission electricity relative to text-based labels but not relative to grayscale labels.”
Paul Bengart and Bodo Vogt. “Effects and Interactions of Labels’ Color Scheme and the Individual Difference Variable Lay Rationalism on Pro-Environmental Choices.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.101998