How Colors Affect Our Moods.
Colors around us.
Our environment, culture and upbringing conditions us to associate different colors with particular things. For example, purple brings to mind royalty, wealth and perhaps wisdom and religion; red we associate with danger or as a warning; pink is the color of love and romance; white is purity, cleanliness and sterility and so on.
Color is actually light, carried from the sun in waves and is part of the same electro-magnetic spectrum as x-rays, radio waves and the like. Light is the only part of this spectrum visible to humans however. When light is perceived by the eye, the retina converts it by electrical impulses to be received by the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that governs metabolism, appetite, behavioral patterns, sleep and body temperature.
Color psychologists claim that it is the combination of fundamental physical perceptions of light and how it is received by the brain (which are universal to all humans regardless of tone or shade of the color in question), along with conditioning, personality type and color combinations that affect our response to color. This would explain the subjectivity of reaction to color and why people respond differently despite some common reactions.
Red – we naturally associate this color with anger as in ‘seeing red’. It is the color to denote danger, love and ironically war. Red can actually increase our heart rate and therefore increase our body temperature. Red can be used effectively in advertising as it enhances memory recall and heightens our attention to detail. It is thought that as red can heighten aggression, it is best to avoid when needing to negotiate.
Pink – pink is a tranquilizing and calm inducing color hence its use previously in police cells and prisons. However, further studies have shown that pink only works this way on our initial perception of it and over time can actually have the opposite effect.
Blue – as blue is on the opposite side of the color wheel to red it
Our environment, culture and upbringing conditions us to associate different colors with particular things. For example, purple brings to mind royalty, wealth and perhaps wisdom and religion; red we associate with danger or as a warning; pink is the color of love and romance; white is purity, cleanliness and sterility and so on.
Color is actually light, carried from the sun in waves and is part of the same electro-magnetic spectrum as x-rays, radio waves and the like. Light is the only part of this spectrum visible to humans however. When light is perceived by the eye, the retina converts it by electrical impulses to be received by the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that governs metabolism, appetite, behavioral patterns, sleep and body temperature.
Color psychologists claim that it is the combination of fundamental physical perceptions of light and how it is received by the brain (which are universal to all humans regardless of tone or shade of the color in question), along with conditioning, personality type and color combinations that affect our response to color. This would explain the subjectivity of reaction to color and why people respond differently despite some common reactions.
Red – we naturally associate this color with anger as in ‘seeing red’. It is the color to denote danger, love and ironically war. Red can actually increase our heart rate and therefore increase our body temperature. Red can be used effectively in advertising as it enhances memory recall and heightens our attention to detail. It is thought that as red can heighten aggression, it is best to avoid when needing to negotiate.
Pink – pink is a tranquilizing and calm inducing color hence its use previously in police cells and prisons. However, further studies have shown that pink only works this way on our initial perception of it and over time can actually have the opposite effect.
Blue – as blue is on the opposite side of the color wheel to red it