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The Psychology of Colour
Colour is one of the places where my two major interests intersect. As a mental health professional I am interested in the psychological and emotional impact of colour and the way colour reflects personality, emotion and mood. As a photographer I am concerned with colour as a compositional element, and the way it influences the reaction of people to images, how the same picture rendered in different hues changes the meaning and impact of the picture and the viewers’ reaction to it. Perceptions of colour are subjective, and there few colour effects that have universal meaning. Much of the meaning that we believe are inherent in colours are in fact socially ascribed. As an extreme example, death is symbolised by black in most Western cultures but by white in many Eastern cultures. Even members of the same culture from different age groups can respond differently to the same hue. Several ancient cultures, including the Egyptians and Chinese, believed colours could be used to heal. Alternative Therapists still apply this method, referring to it variously as Chromotherapy, light therapy or colourology. According to this theory, red stimulates the body and mind and to increase circulation, yellow was thought to stimulate the nerves and purify the body, orange is used to heal the lungs and to increase energy levels, while blue is believed to soothe illnesses and treat pain and indigo alleviate skin problems. No well conducted research actually supports the practice and most health professionals view colour therapy with skepticism. Research has demonstrated that any mood-altering effects of colour is temporary; a blue room may make some people feel calm, but the effect will be dissipate after a short period of time. Physical changes are even more transient, and are better explained as psychological effects of trust, expectancy and suggestion. Psychology continues to study the effect of colour on human behaviour and emotion, but since colour symbolism is an unstable cultural construct, varying with time, place, the same colour may perform very different symbolic or psychological functions over time, even in the same culture. Because of this, colour psychology is a contentious area of study dependent more on anecdotal evidence than data from well designed studies. Tests of character and personality have been popular from time to time. However it is extremely difficult to standardise colours (just what colour is “red”?) and even in small samples, the tests and the theories on which they are based have proved unreliable. One example is the work of Max Luscher who suggested colour preferences could be used to determine individual personality traits. His famous test utilised cards of different colours which subjects arranged in order of preference. Participants who preferred blue were said to be passive and sensitive. Like palm reading or horoscopes, the resulting analysis was prone to interpretation and generally seen to fit a wide range of individuals. Fashion designers and architects may have a better and more practical understanding of colour. They certainly understand how transient their offerings may be, and in fact depend on it. Even so, Western fashion offers some “rules” for colour. For instance, black is thought to be always in style. It is popular in fashion because it is believed to make people appear thinner. Again to the Western mind, black also implies both submission and authority and power. Priests wear black to signify submission to God through which they have (or perhaps, had) authority within the church. How confusing then to claim that a woman wearing black is showing submission to men, and that men in black are aloof or evil. Black is not a colour, of course, but the absence of colour. White is not a colour, either, and it too has interesting associations. As pointed out earlier, in many cultures it is the colour of death, yet in the west, brides wear white to symbolise innocence and purity. What, I wonder, does a Japanese bride experience when she adopts the western ideal and marries in white, as we see so often? Perhaps this ready transfer of cultural meaning is evidence that these psychological impacts are really not very significant after all. But they do exist. Are there any “facts”? Exposure to some shades of red stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing. Red calls attention to itself: in a photograph, it is the first colour noticed and the longest remembered. Red clothes gets noticed (which may be because red has been associated with “scarlet women” rather than the other way around). Pink is quite interesting. Intense, “hot” pink has been reported to have a tranquillising effect. There was a period during the 1970s when gaol solitary cells, and seclusion rooms in mental hospitals were painted bright pink; violent and disturbed people placed in them were believed to calm much more quickly and to need less medication. They have long since been abandoned. Sports teams have sometimes painted the locker rooms used by visiting teams bright pink so their opponents would lose energy. I have no idea if that was ever reflected in the scores! The colour of the sky and the ocean, blue is one of the most popular colours. It is supposed to cause the opposite reaction to red, prompting the body to produce calming chemicals, so it is often used in bedrooms. But blue can also be cold and depressing (ever had the blues?), and fashion consultants have recommend wearing blue to job interviews believing it symbolises loyalty. Green is no more common in nature than other colours, yet somehow it has come to symbolise the natural world. It is the easiest colour on the eye and is claimed to improve vision. There is a belief that artists about to appear on TV wait in "green rooms" because the colour is relaxing: not so... this is a left over from the days when theatres were lit by intense greenish “limelights: the green walled rooms lessened the impact on their eyes when they went on stage. Hospitals once use green because it was thought to relax patients, but this practice has been largely discarded, with no detrimental effect on patients. Colour theorists have devised many theories linking colours to emotions, but their results contradict each other and it has become clear that no standard exists. Sadly, trustworthy evidence proving that colour causes any quantifiable psychological or other effect upon humans does not exist. |
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It is also true that a particular color is given the attribute of being the "in" color by the fashion industry and then a whole season of clothing and accessories will be produced in that particular color.
Thank you! I get tired of these color-personality tests.
Red gained one interesting speculation from Robert T. Bakker in "Raptor Red," as Bakker pointed out that red grabs attention in mating displays across many species that see color, but is also the color of fresh blood. Fresh blood to an omnivore may mean fresh food or it may mean injury. So excitement at the color red may have some biological basis, but interpretation is still going to be in context even for a bird or dinosaur! Red stands out against green vegetation and is an attention getter, so that's the thing with red. Once attention's given it has the meaning of its context -- red flower, red lips of a woman who's wearing lipstick, red foods like meat or tomatoes, the bright splash of a kid's scraped knee. Your debunking universal color meanings is a great relief to me. Personal association can change any of them!
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This intel was contributed by David Rich
David Rich
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February, 2012
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