How to Leverage Color Psychology in the Courtroom

Contextual and cultural differences can lead to different impressions of different colors.

What are the best colors for your trial graphics?

How to leverage color psychology in the courtroom

Colors are powerful tools for shaping perceptions. Learning the basics of color psychology can help you choose the right colors for your trial graphics.

Understanding Color Psychology

Colors can evoke emotions, shape impressions, and clarify positions.

It’s important to know that there’s no such thing as a “good” or “bad” color—every color comes with positive and negative associations. Leveraging those associations can help strengthen your argument.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most popular associations with basic colors:

Green: Positive attributes: positive, nature, wealth. Negative attributes: sickness, envy, immaturity.
Yellow: Positive attributes: eye-catching, sunny, light. Negative attributes: cowardice, abrasive, irrational.
Blue: Positive attributes: calm, reliable, peace. Negative attributes: coldness, unemotional, sadness.
Orange: Positive attributes: warmth, energetic, bold. Negative attributes: frustration, loud, caution.
Purple: Positive attributes: royalty, mystical, creativity. Negative attributes: arrogant, entitlement, pompous.
Red: Positive attributes: passion, exciting, action. Negative attributes: aggressive, angry, negative.
Black: Positive attributes: mysterious, sophisticated, security. Negative attributes: death, evil, menacing.
Gray: Positive attributes: neutral, mature, quiet. Negative attributes: drab, non-emotional, depressing.

Considering Cultural Backgrounds

Contextual and cultural differences can lead to different impressions of different colors.

White: associated with purity in some cultures and death in others
Green: might be linked to agriculture in a rural area and finance in an urban one
Red: symbolizes luck and wealth in Chinese culture, but aggression and negativity in most Western cultures

Your trial location will most likely favor Western sensibilities, but don’t discount the cultural factors jurors might bring to the trial. Choose colors carefully to avoid unwanted connotations.

Colors in Trial Graphics

Example: Predation vs. Expansion

How are these maps likely to be perceived?

[graphic] Map with red pins.	[graphic] Map with green pins.
Red pins suggest Company A’s predatory nature. They seem to spread menacingly over the country.	Green pins spin the company’s expansion in a positive light.
Different colors = different meanings.

Example: Matching color to message

Shape how a jury understands positive and negative outcomes by choosing the right colors.

In the example below, an attorney wants to communicate that a negative result on a medical exam is a favorable outcome. The natural inclination is to choose either red to indicate a negative result or green to indicate a positive outcome.

John Smith tested negative for cancer (placed on a red background)	John Smith tested negative for cancer (placed on a green background)
Red leads jurors on a confusing emotional path—it’s a good result, but the color indicates a negative outcome.	Green is better, but it still creates an incongruence between the word “negative” and the positive outcome.

For best results, you can rewrite the trial graphic and use a color associated with reliability to create a congruent meaning between the color and the text.

Tests indicated that John Smith was cancer free (placed on a blue background)

Example: Color coding for consistency

Colors are useful narrative tools for keeping similar ideas, themes, parties, or witnesses coded to a specific color. In the example below, color-coding the four main case themes helps reinforce the themes and tells a consistent, easy-to-understand story.

Infographic titled “Production Over Safety: A Roadmap to Disaster,” showing four colored trend lines running left to right from 1985 to 2004. A callout marks “June 1991: ABC Purchased Smith,” after which the blue Management Theme/Performance arrow flips its stated priority order from “Safety over Production” to “Production over Safety.” Over the same period, the orange Plant Physical Condition line declines from “Good” to being labeled “a time bomb”; the green Maintenance Technicians Personnel Levels line drops from 31 to 20 to 16 staff; and the thick purple Production Levels line rises from $10 million to $30 million, overtaking the other lines. All four lines converge at a starburst marked “12/13/04 Explosion” in the bottom right, visually linking rising production and falling safety investment to the resulting disaster.

In subsequent graphics, attorneys used the same colors for the same themes. For example, if the attorney was cross-examining a witness about production levels, the attorney used a light purple color in subtle headers and footers when displaying those documents to the jury.

Color coding created a consistent, memorable narrative that visually tied different themes together.

Add some color to your argument.

Color can be a powerful tool for your argument, so the more you understand color psychology, the more effective your trial graphics will be.

Need help creating compelling and effective trial graphics? The experts at IMS Legal Strategies are here to help.

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