Assessing the expectations associated with pharmaceutical pill colour and shape

Abstract Two experiments are reported in which people’s sensory, hedonic, and efficacy expectations associated with pharmaceutical pills of differing colour and shape were assessed. In Experiment 1, 101 participants from the USA viewed online photos of tablets having one of 7 colours and 3 shapes. The participants had to arrange the 21 tablets based on the expectations generated solely by the tablets’ visual properties. The results revealed that the colour of the tablets influenced expected bitterness, expected alertness, and expected efficiency in combating headaches, whereas the shape of the tablets influenced the expected difficulty of swallowing. In Experiment 2, the major findings of Experiment 1 were replicated while using a greater variety of colours, in 358 participants from China, Colombia, and the USA. Importantly, the results revealed some shared expectations across cultures, such as the high expected efficacy of white tablets in combating headaches, or the high expected difficulty of swallowing the diamond-shaped tablets. The results also revealed some differences among the three groups, such as that the colour of the pills influenced how difficult the Chinese participants (but not the other two groups) expected the pills would be to swallow. These findings clearly demonstrate that the differing colours and shapes of pharmaceutical pills set-up significantly different expectations which likely play an important role in terms of people’s subsequent experience.

[1]  Carlos Velasco,et al.  The context of colour-flavour associations in crisps packaging: A cross-cultural study comparing Chinese, Colombian, and British consumers , 2014 .

[2]  T. J. Madden,et al.  Managing Images in Different Cultures: A Cross-National Study of Color Meanings and Preferences , 2000 .

[3]  M. Bar,et al.  Visual elements of subjective preference modulate amygdala activation , 2007, Neuropsychologia.

[4]  R. Horne,et al.  Factors Associated With Non-Adherence to Oral Medication for Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Systematic Review , 2010, The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

[5]  M. O'Mahony,et al.  Gustatory Responses to Nongustatory Stimuli , 1983, Perception.

[6]  M. Z. Hussain.  Effect of Shape of Medication in Treatment of Anxiety States , 1972, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[7]  Jerry C. Olson,et al.  Cognitive effects of deceptive advertising. , 1978 .

[8]  Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos,et al.  Predictive packaging design: Tasting shapes, typefaces, names, and sounds , 2014 .

[9]  David C. Zhu,et al.  Recognizing Threat: A Simple Geometric Shape Activates Neural Circuitry for Threat Detection , 2009, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[10]  J. Strojny,et al.  SCALING OF SENSORY IMPRESSIONS , 2008 .

[11]  A. Cohen,et al.  Patient nonadherence to medication in inflammatory bowel disease. , 2003 .

[12]  Vanessa M. Patrick,et al.  The Marketers’ Prismatic Palette: A Review of Color Research and Future Directions , 2013 .

[13]  Richard L. Myers,et al.  The 100 Most Important Chemical Compounds , 2007 .

[14]  John E. Hogan,et al.  Importance of drug type, tablet shape and added diluents on drug release kinetics from hydroxypropylmethylcellulose matrix tablets , 1987 .

[15]  Aaron S Kesselheim,et al.  Why do the same drugs look different? Pills, trade dress, and public health. , 2011, The New England journal of medicine.

[16]  Gastón Ares,et al.  Studying the influence of package shape and colour on consumer expectations of milk desserts using word association and conjoint analysis , 2010 .

[17]  R. Horne,et al.  Patients' attitudes to medicines and adherence to maintenance treatment in inflammatory bowel disease , 2009, Inflammatory bowel diseases.

[18]  C. Spence,et al.  A large sample study on the influence of the multisensory environment on the wine drinking experience , 2014, Flavour.

[19]  Lauren I. Labrecque,et al.  Exciting red and competent blue: the importance of color in marketing , 2012 .

[20]  Dan Ariely,et al.  Placebo Effects of Marketing Actions: Consumers May Get What They Pay For , 2005 .

[21]  A. Cattaneo,et al.  Effect of capsule colour and order of administration of hypnotic treatments , 1978, European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

[22]  M. Schwab,et al.  Adherence to thiopurine treatment in out‐patients with Crohn’s disease , 2007, Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics.

[23]  L. W. Buckalew,et al.  Relation of Capsule Color and Perceived Potency , 1984, Perceptual and motor skills.

[24]  Charles E. Osgood,et al.  A Cross-Cultural Study of the Affective Meanings of Color , 1973 .

[25]  J. Breitkreutz,et al.  Challenges of developing palatable oral paediatric formulations. , 2009, International journal of pharmaceutics.

[26]  K. Schapira,et al.  Study on the Effects of Tablet Colour in the Treatment of Anxiety States , 1970, British medical journal.

[27]  C. Koch,et al.  Preconceptions of Taste Based on Color , 2003, The Journal of psychology.

[28]  Elizabeth H. Zandstra,et al.  Expecting yoghurt drinks to taste sweet or pleasant increases liking , 2011, Appetite.

[29]  C. Spence,et al.  Does Food Color Influence Taste and Flavor Perception in Humans? , 2010 .

[30]  Mubeen Aslam,et al.  Are You Selling the Right Colour? A Cross‐cultural Review of Colour as a Marketing Cue , 2006 .

[31]  C. Spence,et al.  Assessing the influence of the multisensory environment on the whisky drinking experience , 2013, Flavour.

[32]  Hendrik N.J. Schifferstein,et al.  Effects of Product Beliefs on Product Perception and Liking , 2001 .

[33]  Rosires Deliza,et al.  THE GENERATION OF SENSORY EXPECTATION BY EXTERNAL CUES AND ITS EFFECT ON SENSORY PERCEPTION AND HEDONIC RATINGS: A REVIEW , 1996 .

[34]  Charles Spence,et al.  On the colour and shape of still and sparkling water: Insights from online and laboratory-based testing , 2012 .

[35]  C. Spence,et al.  When the shape of the glass influences the flavour associated with a coloured beverage: Evidence from consumers in three countries , 2015 .

[36]  C. Spence,et al.  Colour, pleasantness, and consumption behaviour within a meal , 2014, Appetite.

[37]  G. Abel,et al.  Chemotherapy as language: sound symbolism in cancer medication names. , 2008, Social science & medicine.

[38]  Ellen Poliakoff,et al.  Expected taste intensity affects response to sweet drinks in primary taste cortex , 2011, Neuroreport.

[39]  C. Maxwell,et al.  Measurement, Correlates, and Health Outcomes of Medication Adherence Among Seniors , 2004, The Annals of pharmacotherapy.

[40]  Charles Spence,et al.  Sensory expectations based on product-extrinsic food cues: An interdisciplinary review of the empirical evidence and theoretical accounts , 2015 .

[41]  C. Spence,et al.  Does the type of receptacle influence the crossmodal association between colour and flavour? A cross-cultural comparison , 2014, Flavour.

[42]  Paul J. Silvia,et al.  Do People Prefer Curved Objects? Angularity, Expertise, and Aesthetic Preference , 2009 .

[43]  Charles Spence,et al.  Grape expectations: The role of cognitive influences in color–flavor interactions , 2010, Consciousness and Cognition.

[44]  N. Iwai.  Drug compliance of children and infants with oral antibiotics for pediatric use , 1997, Acta paediatrica Japonica : Overseas edition.

[45]  Olivier Oullier,et al.  Why People Drink Shampoo? Food Imitating Products Are Fooling Brains and Endangering Consumers for Marketing Purposes , 2014, PloS one.

[46]  M. J. Shale,et al.  Studies of compliance with delayed‐release mesalazine therapy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease , 2003, Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics.

[47]  A J Courtney.  Chinese Population Stereotypes: Color Associations , 1986, Human factors.

[48]  J. Kleijnen,et al.  Effect of colour of drugs: systematic review of perceived effect of drugs and of their effectiveness , 1996, BMJ.

[49]  C. Spence,et al.  The Perfect Meal: The Multisensory Science of Food and Dining , 2014 .

[50]  Lauren I. Labrecque,et al.  To be or not to be different: Exploration of norms and benefits of color differentiation in the marketplace , 2013 .

[51]  Markus A. Maier,et al.  Chapter two - Color-in-Context Theory , 2012 .

[52]  Charles Spence,et al.  The multisensory packaging of beverages , 2012 .

[53]  S. Faust,et al.  Prescribing for children – taste and palatability affect adherence to antibiotics: a review , 2011, Archives of Disease in Childhood.

[54]  K. Jacobs,et al.  Classification of Placebo Drugs: Effect of Color , 1979, Perceptual and motor skills.

[55]  Olivier Droulers,et al.  Pharmaceutical Packaging Color and Drug Expectancy , 2005 .

[56]  D. A. Stevens,et al.  Metallic taste from electrical and chemical stimulation. , 2005, Chemical senses.

[57]  Steve J. Westerman,et al.  Product Design: Preference for Rounded versus Angular Design Elements , 2012 .

[58]  H. Hecht,et al.  AMBIENT LIGHTING MODIFIES THE FLAVOR OF WINE , 2009 .

[59]  Jasper J. F. van den Bosch,et al.  Cross-cultural differences in crossmodal correspondences between basic tastes and visual features , 2014, Front. Psychol..

[60]  Barry J. Babin,et al.  Color and shopping intentions: The intervening effect of price fairness and perceived affect , 2003 .

[61]  C. Spence,et al.  On tasty colours and colourful tastes? Assessing, explaining, and utilizing crossmodal correspondences between colours and basic tastes , 2015, Flavour.

[62]  Markus A. Maier,et al.  Color psychology: effects of perceiving color on psychological functioning in humans. , 2014, Annual review of psychology.

[63]  Dan Ariely,et al.  Commercial features of placebo and therapeutic efficacy. , 2008, JAMA.

[64]  C. Spence,et al.  Hedonic mediation of the crossmodal correspondence between taste and shape , 2015 .

[65]  John Prescott.  Taste Matters: Why We Like the Foods We Do , 2012 .

[66]  M. Siegrist,et al.  Fluency of pharmaceutical drug names predicts perceived hazardousness, assumed side effects and willingness to buy , 2014, Journal of health psychology.

[67]  Martin R. Yeomans,et al.  The role of expectancy in sensory and hedonic evaluation: The case of smoked salmon ice-cream , 2008 .

[68]  G. Ertan,et al.  The effect of geometric shape on the release properties of metronidazole from lipid matrix tablets. , 2009, Journal of biomedical nanotechnology.

[69]  Carmel A Levitan,et al.  Assessing the role of color cues and people's beliefs about color-flavor associations on the discrimination of the flavor of sugar-coated chocolates. , 2008, Chemical senses.

[70]  Zbigniew Zaleski,et al.  The Colors of Anger, Envy, Fear, and Jealousy , 1997 .

[71]  R. Dagan,et al.  Variation in acceptance of common oral antibiotic suspensions , 1994, The Pediatric infectious disease journal.

[72]  Derrick G. Watson,et al.  Negative triangles: simple geometric shapes convey emotional valence. , 2012, Emotion.

[73]  L. Fallowfield,et al.  Patients' preference for administration of endocrine treatments by injection or tablets: results from a study of women with breast cancer. , 2006, Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology.

[74]  M. Bar,et al.  Humans Prefer Curved Visual Objects , 2006, Psychological science.