Persuasive colours for trust in E-commerce: Dutch blue or Russian red?

Figures & data

Figure 1. Conceptual model of the present study.

Table 1. Demographic information of the sample per cultural group (in percentages).

	Dutch (N = 157)	Russian (N = 122)
Gender
Male	38%	41%
Female	62%	59%
Age
16–29	76%	80%
30–39	4%	18%
40–60	20%	2%
Education
High school	12%	20%
Middle/Higher education	62%	20%
University	26%	60%

Figure 2. Laptop sleeve offered in a web store context: left with a blue colour (RGB code = 1A3650), and right with a red colour (RGB code = FF7F7F).

Table 2. Reported colour associations with trust per condition.

‘This colour I associate the most with trust’	Blue colour condition (N = 157)	Red colour condition (N = 122)
Light red	19 (12%)	24 (20%)
Dark red	9 (6%)	7 (6%)
Yellow	6 (4%)	8 (6%)
Black	11 (7%)	7 (6%)
Light blue	65 (41%)	48 (39%)
Dark blue	47 (30%)	28 (23%)

Table 3. Regression coefficients, standard errors (SE) and model summary information (based on 5000 bootstrap samples) for the effect of the colour model.

		Dependent
		M (Initial trust)				Y (Purchase intention)
Independent		Coeff.	SE	p		Coeff.	SE	p
X (Colour)	a1	0.133	0.088	.131	c’	0.143	0.113	.205
M (Initial trust)		—	—	—	b1	0.239	0.077	.002*
W (Culture)	a2	0.218	0.088	.014*	b2	−0.251	0.113	.028*
X x W	a3	0.050	0.177	.777	b3	–0.103	0.227	.651
M x W		—	—	—	b4	−0.154	0.142	.278
C1 (Familiarity)	f1	0.381	0.049	<.001*	g1	0.124	0.069	.076
C2 (Propensity)	f2	0.059	0.044	.182	g2	0.059	0.056	.299
Constant	iM	–1.484	0.203	<.001*	iy	2.690	0.284	<.001*
		R^2 = 0.22,				R^2 = 0.10,
		F(5,273) = 15.503, p < .001*				F(7,271) = 4.467, p < .001*

Figure 3. Model of colour as a predictor of purchase intention, mediated by trust.

Figure 4. The effect of colour on purchase intention per culture. Means on a 5-point-scale, 1 = min. (completely disagree) and 5 = max. (completely agree).

Figure 5. The effect of colour on initial trust per culture. Means on a 5-point-scale, 1 = min. (completely disagree) and 5 = max. (completely agree).

Table

Culture	In which country were you born?
	In what country do you live at the moment?
	To what ethnic group do you belong?
Purchase intention	I would like to buy this product.
Hedonic product attitude	How do you feel about the product?
	irritating	enjoyable
	no fun	fun
Utilitarian product attitude	How do you feel about the product?
	not informative	informative
	pointless	useful
Initial trust	This website is trustworthy.
Trustworthiness/familiarity	Prior online purchase experiences from other websites make me feel comfortable in using this website.
Trust propensity	It is easy for me to trust a person.
Uncertainty avoidance	I prefer structured situations to unstructured situations.
	I prefer specific instructions to broad guidelines.
	I tend to get anxious easily when I don’t know an outcome.
	I feel stressful when I cannot predict consequences.
	I would not take risks when an outcome cannot be predicted.
	I believe that rules should not be broken for mere pragmatic reasons.
	I don’t like ambiguous situations.
Online purchase experience	I am familiar with purchasing products online.
	I have good experiences with purchasing products online.
Manipulation check	This colour I associate the most with trust …
	What was the background colour of the images in this questionnaire?