Preview

How Are We Influenced by Color

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
592 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Are We Influenced by Color
Topic: How are we influenced by color?
Color is brightness and variety in something, such as a room or picture that gives it interest or immediacy. Color has been known to influence people’s psychological behaviors and associations with iconic objects or ideas. Dark colors are often associated with a somber attitudes, cold places, and even death. Bright colors are representative of euphoric feelings, warm places, and enrichment because they are the opposite of dark colors. Colors may also change behaviors and moods. If someone were acting aggressive, seeing a specific color, shade, or tint may calm or heighten their senses. Today, particular colors have even been trademarked in fashion to specific fashion designers and their products. Everywhere we go, we are being influenced by colors.
Color transmits meaning in two ways, natural and psychological. For example, in the article Color Symbolism Theories, it states that “a soft shade of blue triggers associations with the sky and a psychological sense of calm.” The article also uses green as a prominent example: “green’s associations with nature communicate growth, fruitfulness, freshness and ecology. On the other hand, green may also be symbolic of good luck, seasickness, and greed- all of which have nothing to do with green plants.” (Morton, Color Symbolism Theories) The article makes it clear that our minds may even subliminally convey different feelings depending on the colors we are exposed to.
A tint so simple as “pink” may have an incredible affect on people. It has been proven that a specific shade of pink, called Baker Miller Pink or Drunk Tank Pink, whose exact formula is R:255, G:145, B:175 will relax someone who is acting aggressive. In the Article, Drunk Tank Pink, “Dr. Alexander Schauss, Ph.D., …was the first to report the suppression of angry, antagonistic, and anxiety ridden behavior among prisoners: ‘Even if a person tries to be angry or aggressive in the presence of pink, he can’t. The



Bibliography: Morton, J.L. "Color Symbolism Theories." 1995. Color Matters. 2 December 2012 <http://www.colormatters.com/color-symbolism/color-symbolism-theories>. —. "Drunk Tank Pink." 1995. Color Matters Web site. 2 December 2012 <http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-the-body/drunk-tank-pink>. —. "Shoes and Hues." 1995. Color Matters Web site. 2 December 2012 <http://www.colormatters.com/color-matters-blog/entry/blogs-a-news/shoes-and-hues>.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    According to “Kids’ Room Color Wisdom: How Colors Affect Behavior”, colors have the potential to inspire, excite, soothe, heal, and even agitate human beings. The article breaks down how pink, purple, blue, red, and other colors have the potential to affect behavior. Pink has the possibility to calm down both sexes. However, most boys are not attracted to pink(Hammond 15). Purple symbolizes royalty, but it also symbolizes sensitivity, compassion, and inspiration in children. Blue, the dominant color for boys, decreases feelings of anxiety and aggression and also lowers blood pressure and heart rates(Hammond 3). Red has the ability to energize the body, excite the mind, and increase heart and breathing rates. Colors are important because they can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions.…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    CH3 GIS

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Some things have associations with colors. For example green for plant life or blue for water…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Colors and matching emotions we are familiar with most commonly are dark and light. Dark colors can initiate the unknown, death, or fear while lighter colors can resemble welcoming feelings, prosperity, and goodness. What about colors like green ? Green is often is associated with growth, prosperity, and hope. For instance, in the book and recent movie, “The Great Gatsby,” where the protagonist, Gatsby is longs for the companionship of his long lost love Daisy. Gatsby revolves his entire life around gaining her affection and even lives directly across a large lake from Daisy to keep an eye on her. The author of this story puts a green light at the end of the dock found at Daisy’s home. Gatsby spends countless nights looking at this light hoping that one day his lifelong dreams will come true. The light symbolizes Gatsby’s hope and progression into the direction of his…

    • 1704 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ld 201 Midterm Answers

    • 2228 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Color choice in a school improves a physical condition that enables learning and development to be desirable for students. Color can transform a school’s atmosphere from depressing and monotonous to inviting, pleasing, and stimulating.…

    • 2228 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maria Popva

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages

    colors are primary colors that relate to the body, mind, emotions, and balance of human…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What colors mean anything to you? Do certain things stand out from the ordinary to you in a way that brings back a specific memory or a certain trait of yourself or someone you know?…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Color is a drive behind the world. A thing that helps people describe what something is, who a person, and what kind of person they may be. Color is more than just a look or a style, it can describe who a person is beneath the color coat they may wear. Color determines who a person is in many stories and goes deeper than thought. The extensive use of Color is key in The Great Gatsby and helps find out who people really are.…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    By seeing colors in everyday’s life, no one tries to give a meaning to them or they often don’t pay attention to those. However in novels or movies, colors are a symbol for a bigger idea. For example, red is the color of passion and love, for instance in cartoons when a character is in love red hearts appear in his eyes. Green is often represented around the villains, most of them have a green attribute. The villain in the Sleeping Beauty as an evil stick with a bowl on it that turns green when she curses Aurora and her dragon spits a green fire to kill the prince. In Spiderman the Green Goblin fights…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many jobs use color psychology to their advantage such as interior designers and advertisers. In an article called The Science Behind Color and Emotion, it states how the fact that colors can impact us can help them with their work. Interior designers always use colors to create emotions in the people who live or work in the space. They use neutral colors in homes most of the time because it gives people that homey feeling. The use of colors and how they make us feel a certain way helps them with their living, so colors must have a psychological affect on us. Colors are used to people’s advantage on a day to day basis. People know that certain colors make people feel a certain way. People may think that we associate colors with feelings because that’s how we’ve been taught. That doesn’t seem logical though because the first teachers for any child are their parents, and everyone is different. The parents didn’t all teach their kids that red is associated with anger. So, we don’t associate colors because we were taught this way. We do that because it’s just the psychological effect it has on our brains.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Great Gatsby Color

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Is there a deeper meaning to colors being used in novels? When someone hears the color blue or green they often times think of it meaning or signifying envy or sadness but that is not always the case. In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald there are many different colors used that signify much deeper things than just using the color to describe something. Fitzgerald’s emphasis on the green light throughout the novel plays a large role in relation to the love that Jay Gatsby has always had for Daisy. Throughout the novel the color green is brought up quite frequently. Fitzgerald uses the color green in the novel to emphasise on hope, to never lose hope on going after what you truly want. Similar to…

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Do Kids Join Gangs

    • 2095 Words
    • 9 Pages

    "Colors": Obvious or subtle colors of clothing, a particular clothing brand, jewelry, or haircuts (But not necessarily the traditional perception of colors as only…

    • 2095 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Red Wheelbarrow Essay

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages

    At least, the emphasizing of colors affects my feeling of the environment. The red color is a bright color which could catch people’s eyes. I believe that the poet William Carlos Williams was attracted by the colorful red wheelbarrow, and wrote this poem. The rain usually brings me some feelings about sad. But in this poem, the red wheelbarrow “glazed with rain water”. The word “glazed” brings more positive feeling of rain. I am no longer feel that rain is sad. Also, there is a contrast between red and white. The bright red and typically white, the stopping wheelbarrow and moving chicken make the whole environment vivid and…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Stressing again the use of image as meaning for children, color plays an important role in the overall reading of children’s literature, as well as Anderson’s film. Moebius observes that colors play in integral, often coded role in picture books: Apart from the traditional associations of certain colours with certain moods or feelings, and apart from the association of bright colours with exhilaration and discovery, and of dark colours with disappointment and confusion, we need to be sensitive to colour as a linkage among different objects. (Moebius 1986)…

    • 1421 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Nt1330 Unit 8

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Colour adds dimension, meaning, and beauty to life. Addressing the physiological, psychological, aesthetic, and technical aspects of color is an important part of a designer's job. As a form of energy, colour effects our emotions, state of mind and physiology within a space. Colour can…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Color also is effective in perceive different meaning. Consumer gets different perceive value just by looking in different color. In food product color sometime has perceive value. Consumer gets a look in food before tasting it where in first look they get an expectation about the food. Color also is persuasive environmentally. Different store environment make consumer feel comfortable and even uncomfortable. Different color combination creates different expectation about product or store. Even the brightness of color has influence on consumption. Like dark color is often seen as offensive on the other hand light color creates comfort and coolness based on common situation.…

    • 8797 Words
    • 30 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics