When settling in to play Among Us with a group of friends on a mobile device or PC, assumptions are made the moment the game starts about who might be an Impostor. What players may not realize, however, is that the immediate gut feeling of suspicion they get when looking at their new round of crewmates might be caused by a subconscious natural weariness of certain hues. What color of crewmate in Among Us is regularly labeled the most 'sus' for players?
The player's suspicion may stem psychologically from sources like game marketing. The red crewmate stands out to players when they initially start the game because of how red has been used to alert trouble. Before any sabotage or strange events can even occur, players will be aware of the red crewmate more than others, and this is because in all the marketing Among Us has produced, the red crewmate is depicted as the Impostor. By creating a consistent portrayal of red as the color to be wary of, players are much more likely to assume that the player with the red crewmate is the one to avoid, allowing other colored Impostors to use red as a decoy and blindside crewmates.
The other reason Among Us players are more likely to assume that red is the color to be careful about actually has its roots in the way color is used symbolically in games. Red has historically been portrayed as an alarm color to mark dangerous items, or to identify something as dangerous, explosive, or evil. In the horror genre, red has a prevalence for being used to show the decrease in health, sending splashes of red over the screen when a player is hit, or having the screen fade to red in the case of a character death. In day-to-day life, red is used to mark things that people need to pay attention to, and more often than not, be cautious of. Among Us uses bright colors on crewmates to draw on those presets players have when associating color with good or evil.
Among Us Portrays The Red Crewmate As 'Sus'
One of the factors that makes Among Us so interesting as a who-did-it game is that it relies both on deduction skill and on players' preconceived ideas of what color theory means when investigating a suspicious crewmate. A pink crewmate is much less likely to draw attention than a black crewmate. Pink is often associated with good or soft things, while the black crewmate looks like a ninja. The red crewmate, with its concerning warning color of a stop-sign, is naturally going to gain the 'sus' label. This only makes it more entertaining to Among Us players when they are stabbed in the back by a friendly-looking banana yellow Impostor.
Color theory plays a large role in deciding which crewmates are the most 'sus.' These subconscious ideas of what each color means can expose what players attach to color based on their experiences. While the red crewmate is portrayed as the most 'sus' in both marketing and fanart, the reality is that all colors are equally likely to be an Imposter, and Among Us challenges players to see past personal presets of what color means and use deduction skills to identify the true troublemaker aboard the ship. While Among Us players may see red as a sketchy character, it might be something soft and pink that is lurking in the vents overhead.