Color quietly plays an enormous role in the way you experience the world. Color can affect your mood, change your sleep schedule, and even change the taste of your food. Color psychology looks at these and lots of other connections between you and color.
Color psychology connects colours with emotions and behavior. It shows how color influences your mood and might even be incorporated into your wellness routines. For corporations, color psychology influences decisions reminiscent of product packaging and brand logos.
Ancient origins of color psychology. People have long been fascinated by colours and know that they have an effect on mood and well-being. Colors were utilized in ancient Egypt, China, and Greece to evoke emotions, aid in spiritual practices, and treat a wide range of medical conditions. Although the character of color was not yet understood, its powerful effects were evident.
Modern understanding of colours. Color can now be understood scientifically. Isaac Newton famously realized that white light was made up of many colours when he placed a prism in sunlight and saw a rainbow appear on the opposite side. In his book of 1704 opticsHe introduced the colour wheel and described how each color is set by a special wavelength of sunshine.
While scientific breakthroughs by Newton and others revealed a few of the secrets behind color, its effects as a therapeutic tool were still being explored. In 1810, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published The theory of colours. This essential work linked colours with emotions and opened the door to modern color psychology.
In the Nineteen Forties, the connection between people and colours deepened even further. The work of K. Goldstein and others promoted the concept that colours influence human physiology and actions. These connections were further developed into the practices of art therapy and color therapy.
Current Applications of Color Psychology. Beyond color therapy, color psychology is now utilized in promoting and marketing. Branding and product design decisions are made based on how people reply to certain colours. The principles of color psychology are also utilized in the design of optimal work, school and living spaces. A health care provider might paint his waiting room brilliant green to advertise a way of calm amongst his anxious patients.
If if you consider the colour red you’re thinking that of affection, you're not alone. In a big cross-cultural survey spanning 30 nations and 22 languages, the association of affection and other emotions with colours was universal.
In the international study, people were asked to decide on an emotion they would love to associate with each color. Here are the emotions mostly associated within the survey:
- Red means love for 68% of individuals.
- Orange means joy for 44% of individuals.
- Yellow means joy for 52% of individuals.
- Green means satisfaction for 39% of individuals.
- Blue means relief for 35% of individuals.
- Turquoise means joy for 35% of individuals.
- Purple means joy for 25% of individuals.
- Pink means love for 50% of individuals.
- Brown means disgust for 36% of individuals.
- Black means sadness for 51% of individuals.
- Gray means sadness for 48% of individuals.
- White means relief for 43% of individuals.
While the precise feelings may vary individually and across cultures, the incontrovertible fact that people associate color with emotions is universal. Since emotions and colours are closely linked, it will not be surprising that colours evokes feelings.
Hue, saturation and brightness affect the way you react to the colour around you. Red hues cause probably the most emotional arousal, blue the least, and green lies somewhere in between. A color that may be very brilliant and highly saturated elicits the strongest emotional response.
Our understanding of color and psychology mix to form a field called color therapy. Color therapy, also called chromotherapy, relies on the concept that each color within the visible light spectrum has a singular wavelength and vibration. These wavelengths create electrical impulses or energy fields that act on the human body.
Different colours have different health advantages. The health advantages of color therapy include, but are usually not limited to:
- Red: stimulating and appetizing
- Orange: improves mood and possibly thyroid function
- Yellow: Increases concentration and should treat arthritis
- Green: a relaxing color and might promote healthj metabolism
- Blue: suppresses appetite and relieves migraine pain
- Indigo: Reportedly promotes mental health.
- Purple: Helps with meditation and potentially endocrine issues
Color therapy is practiced in alternative health clinics, sometimes using LED lights to create a therapeutic color. It treats anxiety, depression, hypertension and sleep disorders. It is taken into account an alternate and complementary treatment, meaning it often complements other medical treatments you’re receiving.
Although claims about color therapy could appear outlandish, the results of various wavelengths of sunshine on humans are usually not controversial. Take, for instance, the well-known risk of blue light affecting sleep cycles. You've probably heard that it’s best to avoid screens – phones, computers, TVs – right before bed. Screens could make it difficult to sleep because electronic devices emit something called blue light.
You could also be wondering if any light keeps you awake or if blue light is special. Researchers at Harvard compared a bunch of individuals exposed to blue light with a bunch exposed to green light. The group exposed to blue light had significantly less melatonin and a more disrupted sleep cycle than the group exposed to green light. In other words: color is essential.
Although not all claims about alternative color therapies are widely accepted, there is robust evidence that color affects our minds and bodies in subtle ways.
Color psychology research will not be limited to paint therapy, but can be utilized in the areas of promoting, promoting and product design. An example is pharmaceuticals.
Drug manufacturers are serious about what color psychology research says in regards to the therapeutic advantages of pill colours. Red pills are related to stimulants and blue ones with rest. Choosing the proper color can create a placebo effect that increases the effectiveness of the drug.
Choosing the proper pill color is essential as early because the clinical trial phase of drug development. Some pill colours make people more prone to forget and even stop taking the medication. Drug manufacturers know that selecting the unsuitable pill color can potentially lead to clinical trial data being skewed as a consequence of non-compliance.
The use of color to influence human emotions, health, and actions is an ancient art that modern science continues to explore. If you feel depressed and have the urge to color your partitions yellow or take a walk in a colourful garden, rest assured that surrounding yourself with the proper colours can improve your mood and well-being.