Colors influence our daily perceptions and expectations which can manifest in a variety of ways. This research has three main objectives: the first is to demonstrate this effect on the relationship between the colors of pills and their perceived and expected efficacies. The second is to test this effect on a wide variety of demographics, thereby demonstrating that categories such as ethnicity, location, age, gender, educational levels, and pill usage frequency can influence the choices made by people. Finally, the third objective is to understand the reasoning behind the choices made by participants, as well as the color associations exhibited.

This research does not involve the intake of drugs by participants, but rather collects data via surveys. Three surveys were run separately over a span of 18 months. The first survey was conducted physically at two of RIT's global campuses: USA and UAE on standardized iPad devices. The second survey was conducted online and covered four of RIT's global campuses: USA, UAE, Croatia, and Kosovo. The third survey was also launched online at five RIT global campuses: USA, UAE, Croatia, Kosovo, and China. The stimuli colors chosen in this research are blue, green, red, white, and yellow, and the efficacies of interest were sedative, stimulant, anti-anxiety, pain-relief, and hallucinogenic. In the first two surveys, participants were asked to rate each of the colors based on its expected efficacy for each of the six efficacies, while the third survey asked participants to choose one color which they perceived to be most effective for each of the efficacies.

While there were some clear patterns and similarities identified in the results, differences were also apparent across the various demographics considered in this study. The emerged patterns will help pharmaceutical companies, as well as medical practitioners, to better manufacture and prescribe drugs, thus maximizing the effects of the pills on patients overall, and increasing their compliance rates.