Using Color Strategically in Litigation Presentations

How does color “color” your argument? The use of color in trial presentation design is becoming less an aesthetic choice and more a strategy of persuasion—and has everything to do with a positive jury response to, and retention of, your argument.

That insight comes from Dave Nugent, who I’m excited to announce just joined Cogent Legal’s team as a senior producer. Dave has worked in the litigation graphics field for well over a decade and has a great understanding of the best ways to create effective media presentations to strengthen a case at mediation or trial. One thing I really like about Dave is the way he uses cognitive psychology to inform his work, as his article below on the topic of color shows.

So, when you’re presenting infographics, PowerPoints and other types of media in court, should you use B&W or color? Brown or blue? Here’s Dave’s advice: Germane to jury persuasion, scientists and psychologists have made two related discoveries in separate lines of investigation: (1) certain colors cause hormonal mental “arousal”; and, (2) mental arousal causes chemical changes in the brain that improve and increase short-term memory retention. Current studies look to prove the logical extension of this equation: (3) therefore, the use of certain colors can improve and increase memory retention.

Colors also lead the emotions and perception. By considering color psychology in demonstrative design, you can associate your client with credibility and trust, send a positive or negative message, compel perceptive responses, calm a dubious audience, or induce a juror to drop and do 20 push-ups (almost).

It is no accident that Campbell’s soup has used the same colors on their labels for decades. Our reaction to color is instantaneous and will color our perception of any subsequent information we take in.

In the early 1900s, Russian theorists performed color-motivated cognitive perception experiments, where the same photo of a person’s face was presented to different groups of viewers. For each separate group, however, the background color behind the face was different. The viewers were asked what their impressions of the person were. The interpretations of that same face varied markedly from group to group, depending on the associated background color each group saw. But within each group—seeing the same background color with the face—the viewers’ perceptions about the person were more uniform (Lotman, Ann Arbor, Trans 1976).

Though some color effects are universal, colors may also have different meanings in different cultures and to differing age groups and genders, so when considering use of color, consider your jury pool. For example: If you project a high percentage of female jurors in the pool, you should avoid the use of brown as a background or primary design color; brown is one of the least-liked colors by women of any age group. Men prefer the color blue by almost 60 percent. And a jury of predominantly Southeast Asian heritage may respond differently to color than one with a majority of white or Latino jurors.

Studies reveal that when images are viewed that use natural colors rather than unfamiliar tones, the images are remembered better (Jesky, 1985). And when one image was presented in two different versions—one in color and one in black & white—the group viewing the color version retained more information and for longer periods of time. Consider this the next time you need to decide between showing a raw blow-up of a black & white exhibit versus creating a color graphical demonstrative of the same content.

To avoid the risk of the jury “throwing away the food” that you so carefully crafted for your argument, a skilled visual presentation consultant can help affect that jury to retain and carry your salient points to deliberation with clarity, wrapped in strategically colored “rags.”

Many thanks to Dave Nugent for this post.

I found this image of my son taken while playing with the laptop's Photo Booth app. I couldn't resist sharing it here. - Morgan