How does grading in red affect students’ emotions and performance, and what are the effects of alternative colors?

This article analyzes how students feel when grading papers in red and how it affects their learning, covering the positive and negative aspects of red, and discussing the effects of using other colors instead of red.

 

We’ve all had the experience of taking a test in elementary school and coming home with a test paper graded in red pencil. If you did well on the test, you remember leaving school with excitement, and if you didn’t, with worry. It was a very familiar situation for friends to tease that it would rain red if they got a lot of questions wrong. In this way, we were very familiar with grading in red. In Korea, they even made a study paper called red pen based on this.
However, some people don’t necessarily use the color red when grading. In my case, I used a purple ballpoint pen, and many other people chose their own color for grading. When I asked them why, some said that they just liked the color, but many said that they didn’t like red. So why do people not like red? Maybe it’s not just a matter of color preference, but an emotional response to color.
People feel different emotions when they perceive different colors. This has been studied for a very long time and has been applied to psychotherapy, architectural design, and even marketing strategies. For example, psychiatric hospitals paint their walls with soothing colors like white and green to calm patients, or use green and purple to highlight the bizarre in artwork. As you can see, color is closely tied to our psychology, and there is still a lot of research going on about what emotions certain colors evoke.
There are some positive effects of red, such as enthusiasm, bravery, and excitement, but there are also negative effects, such as inferiority, aggression, gloom, and dissatisfaction. The question is how people feel when grading a test in red. While it varies from person to person, the color red can be hurtful when you take a test and have your errors pointed out to you. This is one of the reasons why people use colors other than red to grade papers.
In fact, Richard Duke, a professor at the University of Colorado, made the same comments on essays, just in a different color. He found that students felt more harshly judged and less connected to the professor when he commented in red. While this is true for adult college students, it’s even more true for young children, whose sensitivities are still developing. In fact, health authorities in Australia have even proposed a bill to ban red marking because they believe it can harm students’ mental health.
So is grading papers in red a bad thing, and is it right to push back against its negative effects and introduce a new color? I don’t think so. Red is not just a color that points out errors. If a child who doesn’t study well gets a test paper full of wrong answers, it can be hurtful. But how would a good student feel if they received a test with a bunch of red circles? They would feel accomplished and confident. It’s one-sided to focus on the negative effects of the color red while ignoring the positive ones.
The color red can evoke a lot of emotions, such as passion and love, that can certainly motivate you to study or take a test. Getting an enthusiastic comment from a teacher in red can be incredibly motivating. It’s a bit of a shame that the debate focuses solely on the negative effects of red marking. What we should be focusing on is the test itself or the pressure of the results, not the color red, which is a tool to mark the results.
Students are always on the test, whether it’s the SATs, SATs, job postings, or interviews, and they are always under pressure, which is why the color red, which could be used to ease that pressure by showing enthusiasm, care, and love, is sometimes seen as aggressive and judgmental. From a student’s point of view, it is important to correct wrong and distorted knowledge and to receive correct knowledge. The role of the educator in this process is also important. That educator can be a teacher, a professor, or even the student themselves.
What students need is not red as a color of hurt or inferiority, but red as a color of love, passion, and concern. Clearly, red has more positive effects than hurt and criticism. Thoughtful red comments and circles can give students hope and ease the pressure of the test. For students who are always under the stress of testing and studying, why not give them a red circle of passion and love instead of a red wrong answer of aggression and frustration? This change can be a great motivator for them and give them a new perspective on the test.