As a symbol of love and passion, it's the perfect backdrop for Valentine's Day. Research shows that it raises blood pressure and quickens both pulse and heart rates faster than any other color.

Red has an equally strong, long-standing association with suffering, violence and rage. The New Testament teems with these connections, to both Christ and the devil. A more contemporary example is Pearl Jam's "The Color Red," in which the band repeats six times: "War/ I'm crazy/ War/ I'm crazy/ I'm war."

Red must have quite a complex.

Cosmetic companies imply a brush with danger, however sultry, when branding lipsticks and nail polishes with such names as Code Red and Drop Dead Red.

The University of Minnesota and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have offered courses on the powerful primary color.

Valerie Steele, author of "The Red Dress" (Rizzoli International, $40), says that in some Asian traditions, brides wear red to symbolize happiness, prosperity and fertility. "But you'd never have a bride in the West wearing that," she adds, "because of the Judeo-Christian tradition and its association with dangers of the flesh and sexuality."

In the art world of the late 1800s, painters began moving away from using colors as symbols and instead "began talking about the idea that colors might be poetic in their own right," says Grace Seiberling, an associate professor of art history at the University of Rochester.

Many billboards and "One-day sale!" promotions use red.

The first Nazi posters had bright red backgrounds. Adolf Hitler explained in his book "Mein Kampf": "We chose red for our posters after particular and careful deliberation, our intention being to irritate the Left ..."

What about those rumors that a red car will run up your insurance bill?

P.J. Crowley, former vice president of the New-York-based Insurance Information Institute, dismissed that as an old yarn.

"The type of your car matters, but not the color," he says. "People are drawn to certain products based on their personality, so it could be true that people who buy red cars drive faster. And if that's true, then it's possible that they get more speeding tickets, which means they could pay more for premiums.

"So there could be something indirectly involved there."

Good news for all you red-car owners, but don't let it go to your foot. Stop signs, brake lights and fire trucks are red for a reason — the color is easy to spot and hard to ignore. So if you're speeding along with everyone else, chances are a cop's going to nail you first.