What Colors Mean And How They Affect Psychology

How does the color blue make you feel ? Or how about seeing your significant other in a beautiful red dress.  I believe most of us are aware of why it is common to wear black to a funeral, but we rarely think about how colors affect us on a  daily basis.

Somewhere in the 1600s, Sir Issac Newton discovered that each color has a very distinct wavelength (basically a very distinct pattern), hence making them look different to our eyes. When certain colors or patterns are presented to us, they invoke different emotions and feelings.

What painters  and designers all realized hundred of years ago is that when humans are shown certain colors, they tend to act in certain ways or feel a specific feeling. Have you ever noticed that most fast food chains are red or yellow? Both of these colors tend to catch people’s attention.

What we should do is learn how colors affect others so we can use them to help get the desired effects. So here is what the color you’re wearing today is most likely saying about you according to psychology.

 

 The Color Red

• Red is the color of energy
• Red is the color of passion/sexuality
• Color of love
• Happy
• Warmth
• Red can be dangerous, a warning or even anger – think black widows and stop signs 

Fun Fact:

• Red has been shown to raise blood pressure and speed respiration and heart rate.

 

 The Color Black 

• Black is an interesting color. It can be a color of competence and strength or depression and sadness
• Color of Authority – hence police, judges, lawyers
• The color of mystery.
• Black is usually associated with death
• Wear black if you don’t want to stand out or be noticed

Fun Fact: 

• In rural areas of Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, widows will wear black for the rest of their lives. The immediate family members of the deceased will wear black for an extended period of time.

 

 The Color White 

• Purity and Innocence
• Cleanliness/Sterile
• Can make you look larger
• Freshness

Fun Fact

• White cars are the safest kind of car. Black cars have a 12% higher risk of crashing; grey cars have a 11% higher risk; silver vehicles 10%; and blue and red are at 7%. On the other hand, white cars are 60% more likely to get covered in bird droppings, according to a 2005 study by Bristol University. Ornithologists suggest this might be self-defense, because the birds associate the color with predators. ( According to http://www.telegraph.co.uk )

 

 

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 The Color Blue 

• According to a survey by Cheskin, MSI-ITM, and CMCD/Visual Symbols Library, more than 40% of people in over 30 countries would pick blue as their favorite color.
• Peace
• Tranquility
• Creativity
• It can be so calming sometimes it will make you feel sad

Fun Fact:

• Blue is often used to decorate offices because research has shown that people are more productive in blue rooms
• Women buy blue sweaters the most out of any color because they think men like it

 

The Color  Green 

• The color of Health
• Easiest color on the eyes
• Color of nature
• Comfort and well being
• Relieves stress

Fun Fact: 

• Green has an amazing calming effect. Guests waiting to appear on television programs often wait in a “green room” to relax.
• Suicides dropped by 34% when London’s Blackfriar Bridge was painted green

 

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The Color Yellow 

• Energy
• Confrontational
• Mixed Messages, sometimes it causes people to feel optimistic but if stare at it for too long, they will become irritable and feel discomfort
• hard on the eyes

Fun Fact:

• Taxis are commonly yellow. This began in Chicago, where John D Herz, a taxi entrepreneur,  painted his taxis yellow based on a university of Chicago study that says yellow is the color most easily seen at a distance.

 

The Color Brown 

• Strength
• Comfort
• Stability
• Relaxing
• Earthy

Fun Fact:

• The largest cut diamond in the world is brown. Found in 1985 in South Africa, it was first known as the “Unnamed Brown”, but was renamed the Golden Jubilee Diamond. It weighs 109g.

 

The Color Purple 

• Royalty
• Wealth
• Exotic
• Wisdom
• Soothing

Fun Fact: 

• Because Purple dye was so difficult to obtain and expensive to produce, the color became associated with power and wealth.
• Samuel L Jackson said that he would only play Mace Windu in Star Wars if he had a purple lightsaber.

 

 

So there are what some of your favorite colors are saying about you that you may not realize. Now you see how powerful colors are and how you can you use them your advantage.

Tell use in the comments what’s your favorite colors and why.