Primate red coloration is used to signal fertility and rank, suggesting the red-green opponent channel carries an evolutionarily ancient valence that red-white lacks.

Evidence

Colorful primates don’t have better color vision, study finds (ScienceDaily (reporting Nature Ecology & Evolution))

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: To what extent does environmental visual adaptation (e.g., living in extreme high- or low-chroma landscapes) shift an individual’s implicit cognitive associations between achromatic light and moral valence?

Related

• Western showed significantly stronger color-valence interactions than Mainland Chinese for red-green but not red-white oppositions, revealing cultural variation in implicit color-valence associations. (similarity 0.81)
• The Western group showed significantly stronger color-valence interaction than Mainland Chinese (but not Macanese) in red-green but not red-white opposition; findings diverge from explicit… (similarity 0.79)