How colour affects us

Color Psychology: Does It Affect How You Feel?

How Colors Impact Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors

Kendra Cherry, MS, is an author and educational consultant focused on helping students learn about psychology.

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Do you feel anxious in a yellow room? Does the color blue make you feel calm and relaxed? Artists and interior designers have long believed that color can dramatically affect moods, feelings, and emotions. «Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions,» the artist Pablo Picasso once remarked.

Color is a powerful communication tool and can be used to signal action, influence mood, and even influence physiological reactions. Certain colors have been associated with increased blood pressure, increased metabolism, and eyestrain. So how exactly does color work? How is color believed to impact mood and behavior?

What Is Color Psychology?

In 1666, English scientist Sir Isaac Newton discovered that when pure white light passes through a prism, it separates into all of the visible colors. Newton also found that each color is made up of a single wavelength and cannot be separated any further into other colors.

Further experiments demonstrated that light could be combined to form other colors. For example, red light mixed with yellow light creates an orange color. Some colors, such as green and magenta, cancel each other out when mixed and result in a white light.

If you have ever painted, then you have probably noticed how certain colors can be mixed to create other colors.

«Given the prevalence of color, one would expect color psychology to be a well-developed area,» researchers Andrew Elliot and Markus Maier have noted. «Surprisingly, little theoretical or empirical work has been conducted to date on color’s influence on psychological functioning,   and the work that has been done has been driven mostly by practical concerns, not scientific rigor.»

Despite the general lack of research in this area, the concept of color psychology has become a hot topic in marketing, art, design, and other areas. Much of the evidence in this emerging area is anecdotal at best, but researchers and experts have made a few important discoveries and observations about the psychology of color and the effect it has on moods, feelings, and behaviors.

Your feelings about color are often deeply personal and rooted in your own experience or culture.

For example, while the color white is used in many Western countries to represent purity and innocence, it is seen as a symbol of mourning in many Eastern countries.

The Psychological Effects of Color

Why is color such a powerful force in our lives? What effects can it have on our bodies and minds? While perceptions of color are somewhat subjective, there are some color effects that have universal meaning.

Colors in the red area of the color spectrum are known as warm colors and include red, orange, and yellow. These warm colors evoke emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility.

Colors on the blue side of the spectrum are known as cool colors and include blue, purple, and green. These colors are often described as calm, but can also call to mind feelings of sadness or indifference.

How do people respond to different colors? Select a color below to learn more about the possible effects and find reactions from other readers:

Color Psychology as Therapy

Several ancient cultures, including the Egyptians and Chinese, practiced chromotherapy, or the use of colors to heal. Chromotherapy is sometimes referred to as light therapy or colorology.

Colorology is still used today as a holistic or alternative treatment.   In this treatment:

Modern Research on Color Psychology

Most psychologists view color therapy with skepticism and point out that the supposed effects of color are often grossly exaggerated. Colors also have different meanings in different cultures.

Research has demonstrated in many cases that the mood-altering effects of color may only be temporary. A blue room may initially cause feelings of calm, but the effect dissipates after a short period of time.

However, existing research has found that color can impact people in a variety of surprising ways:

Color Can Influence Performance

Studies have also shown that certain colors can have an impact on performance. No one likes to see a graded test covered in red ink, but one study found that seeing the color red before taking an exam actually hurt test performance. 

While the color red is often described as threatening, arousing or exciting, many previous studies on the impact of the color red have been largely inconclusive. The study found, however, that exposing students to the color red prior to an exam has been shown to have a negative impact on test performance.

In the first of the six experiments described in the study, 71 U.S. colleges students were presented with a participant number colored either red, green or black prior to taking a five-minute test.

The results revealed that students who were presented with the red number before taking the test scored more than 20% lower than those presented with the green and black numbers.

Color and Consumer Purchases

Color psychology suggests that various shades can have a wide range of effects, from boosting our moods to causing anxiety. But could the color of the products you purchase ever say something about your personality? For example, could the color of the car you buy somehow relate to some underlying personality traits or quirks?

Your color preferences why buying items might say something about the type of image you may be trying to project. Color preferences, from the clothes you wear to the car you drive, can sometimes make a statement about how we want other people to perceive us. Other factors such as age and gender can also influence the color choices we make.

Of course, the color selections we make are often influenced by factors including price, selection, and other practical concerns. Not only that, but color preferences can also change in time. 

A person might prefer brighter, more attention-getting colors when they are younger, but find themselves drawn to more traditional colors as they grow older. The personality of the buyer can play an important role in color selection, but buyers are often heavily influenced by factors such as price as well as availability.

For example, purchasing a white vehicle might be less about wanting people to think that you are young and modern and more about the climate you live in; people who live in hot climates typically prefer light-colored vehicles over dark ones.

Additional Research Is Still Needed

Interest in the subject of color psychology is growing, but there remain a number of unanswered questions. How do color associations develop? How powerful is the influence of these associations on real-world behavior?

Can color be used to increase worker productivity or workplace safety? What colors have an impact on consumer behavior? Do certain personality types prefer certain colors? As researchers continue to explore such questions, we may soon learn more about the impact that color has on human psychology.

Zena O’Connor, a faculty member in the Department of Architecture, Design, and Planning at the University of Sydney, suggests that people should be wary of many of the claims they see about the psychology of color.

«Many of these claims lack substantiation in terms of empirical support, exhibit fundamental flaws (such as causal oversimplification and subjective validation), and may include factoids presented as facts,» O’Connor explains. «In addition, such claims often refer to outdated research without referring to current research findings.»

A Word From Verywell

Color can play an important role in conveying information, creating certain moods, and even influencing the decisions people make. Color preferences also exert an influence on the objects people choose to purchase, the clothes they wear, and the way they adorn their environments.

People often select objects in colors that evoke certain moods or feelings, such as selecting a car color that seems sporty, futuristic, sleek, or trustworthy. Room colors can also be used to evoke specific moods, such as painting a bedroom a soft green to create a peaceful mood.

So what’s the bottom line? Experts have found that while color can have an influence on how we feel and act, these effects are subject to personal, cultural, and situational factors. More scientific research is needed to gain a better understanding of color psychology.

Azeemi ST, Raza SM. A critical analysis of chromotherapy and its scientific evolution. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2005;2(4):481-8. doi:10.1093/ecam/neh137

Elliot AJ, Maier MA, Moller AC, Friedman R, Meinhardt J. Color and psychological functioning: the effect of red on performance attainment. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2007;136(1):154-68. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.136.1.154

Taylor C, Schloss K, Palmer SE, Franklin A. Color preferences in infants and adults are different. Psychon Bull Rev. 2013;20(5):916-22. doi:10.3758/s13423-013-0411-6

Kida, TE. Don’t Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make In Thinking. New York: Prometheus Books; 2006.

O’Connor, Z. Colour psychology and colour Therapy: Caveat emptor. Color Research & Application. 2011;36(3):229-234.

Color Psychology: How Different Colors Affect Our Perception

Color psychology studies the ways different colors affect us. It can even reveal your personality traits depending on your favorite color.

Do you have a favorite color? Is your wardrobe made up of shades of a certain hue? Why do you think this is? Why are we attracted to one color rather than others? Could it be that colors can affect us on a deeper, unconscious level, one that we are not even aware of? Color psychology can give answers to these questions.

Psychologists know that colors have a dramatic effect on our moods, emotions and feelings, and have used them in different environments to elicit certain reactions. In prisons, the color pink has a calming effect on unruly inmates, whereas green can indicate the feeling of space in a small area.

Here is a rundown of each color and how they can affect us, according to color psychology:

Red makes us feel energized as it symbolizes the color of blood. It is also a very sensual color as it focuses the attention on a particular body part such as the lips. It makes us aware of our sexuality.

Red is a sign of danger, it alerts us to danger in the world around us as it wakes us up to danger, think of red brake lights in cars and red stop lights in a set of traffic lights.

ORANGE

Orange is a youthful color typically associated with adolescence and fun and frivolity. We get excited when we look at orange, but it can also suggest immaturity and inexperience, as airline company EasyJet found to their cost. Their passengers were not taking the company’s staff seriously because of the orange in their uniforms. When we see orange, we associate it with childish behavior.

YELLOW

According to color psychology, yellow represents happiness, creativity and optimism. This color has the ability to lift your spirits and can even help with memory, (this is why order/legal pads are often colored yellow). In abundance, it can be tiring, however, as it is a difficult color for the eye to process.

GREEN

Green is the color of nature and as such is the easiest color for the eye to process. This is why surgeons wear green, as their previous white gowns proved to strain the eyes too much.

Green gives an illusion of space and is associated with harmony and balance. Its association with nature means that it evokes a sense of peace. If you live in a cramped apartment, try painting it green to give the illusion of more space.

Blue is the color of trust, intelligence and efficiency. Watch out for any global conflicts as you’ll often see world leaders wearing blue when they come together to discuss peaceful action.

Blue is also a conservative color and indicates reliability and tradition, according to color psychology. When we see blue, we automatically associative it with uniforms, a higher intelligence, military and organization. We are able to let go and give others our power because the color blue takes over.

PURPLE

Purple is a spiritual color and also the most expensive to produce. This means it is associated with wealth, royalty and people of high rank.

A mystical color, it invokes a sense of eccentricity and individualism. Purple can have a calming effect on the mind so long as it is used in moderation.

BLACK

Black is elegant, stylish and sophisticated, but it can also have negative associations. It is used for mourning, and also to depict evil characters, so it depends on the context how the color black affects us.

WHITE

Associated with innocence, remember when Liz Hurley wore a white dress after her boyfriend Hugh Grant cheated on her with a Los Angeles hooker?

White is the color of purity, peace and also surrender. Noted foreign correspondent Martin Bell always wore white when he traveled to risky areas because ‘no one would fire as it was obvious he wasn’t the enemy’.

Grey can look quite stunning when used sparingly to decorate a room. However, color psychology states that it is a depressing color that dampens the mood and is associated with a lack of confidence.

Grey is like an absence of color, it reminds us of grey skies and miserable weather where we just want to stay indoors and sit by the fire. If you naturally suffer from depression, then steer clear from grey.

BROWN

An earthy color, brown is wholesome, trustworthy and approachable. It gives off a kind and caring aura and a welcoming vibe. Brown makes you feel safe and sheltered. It is one of the most approachable colors as it is associated with down-to-earth people who are stable and can be trusted.

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Colors and emotions: how colors make you feel

Colors and emotions are closely linked. Warm colors can evoke different emotions than cool colors and bright colors can create different feelings than muted colors. It all depends on how the psychological effects of color are being used.

Every color creates different emotions and feelings.

Colors can make us feel happy or sad, and they can make us feel hungry or relaxed. These reactions are rooted in psychological effects, biological conditioning and cultural imprinting.

In this article we explain how colors make you feel and what impact colors can have on our emotions.

Colors and emotions

The way different colors can affect emotions depends largely on a color’s brightness, shade, tint or tone and whether it’s cool or warm toned. Let’s take a look at some of the effects colors can have on how you feel:

Warm colors

Red, orange and yellow are next to each other on the wheel and are all warm colors. Warm colors often evoke feelings of happiness, optimism and energy. However, yellow, red and orange can also have an attention grabbing effect and signal danger or make you take action (think stop signs, hazard warnings and barrier tape). Red can also increase a person’s appetite.

Cool colors

Cool colors include green, blue, and purple. Cool colors are usually calming and soothing but can also express sadness. Purple is often used to help spark creativity as it’s a mixture of blue (calm) and red (intense). If a company wants to display health, beauty or security, incorporate these colors.

Happy colors

Happy colors are bright, warm colors like yellow, orange, pink and red. Pastel colors like peach, light pink or lilac can also have an uplifting effect on your mood. The brighter and lighter a color, the more happy and optimistic it will make you feel. Another way colors can create happy emotions is by combining multiple primary and secondary colors together for a youthful, colorful effect.

Sad colors

Sad colors are colors that are dark and muted. Grey is the quintessential sad color, but dark and muted cool colors like blue, green or neutrals like brown or beige can have a similar effect on feelings and emotions depending on how they’re used. In Western cultures black is often considered the color of mourning, whereas in some East Asian countries it’s white.

Calming colors

Cool colors like blue and green can make you feel calm. Pastel colors and particularly cool toned pastels like baby blue, lilac and mint have a calming and relaxing effect. Neutrals like white, beige and grey can also make you feel calm. The fewer colors you combine and the more simple and pared back a design is, the more calming it will feel.

Energizing colors

Strong, bright colors and neon colors can have a powerful effect on emotions. Colors like bright red, bright yellow and neon green can feel energizing and make you feel more alert, but can also be irritating on the eyes. These colors will grab your attention and stand out from their surroundings. Highly pigmented, strong colors like royal blue, turquoise, magenta and emerald green can also have a stimulating effect and make you feel refreshed and energized.

How colors make you feel

Next, let’s dive into the emotions and feelings different colors can evoke.

Photograph: Cas Cornelissen (via Unsplash)

Red makes you feel passionate and energized.

Red is the warmest and most dynamic of the colors—it triggers opposing emotions. It is often associated with passion and love as well as anger and danger. It can increase a person’s heart rate and make them excited.

If you want to draw attention to a design element, use red. But use it as an accent color in moderation as it can be overwhelming.

Orange

Photograph: Afroz Nawaf (via Unsplash)

Orange makes you feel energized and enthusiastic.

Orange enhances a feeling of vitality and happiness. Like red, it draws attention and shows movement but is not as overpowering. It is aggressive but balanced — it portrays energy yet can be inviting and friendly. Orange is great for a call to action to buy or subscribe to a product.

Yellow

Photograph: Alexander Shustov (via Unsplash)

Yellow makes you feel happy and spontaneous.

Yellow is perhaps the most energetic of the warm colors. It is associated with laughter, hope and sunshine. Accents of yellow help give your design energy and will make the viewer feel optimistic and cheerful. However, yellow tends to reflect more light and can irritate a person’s eyes. Too much yellow can be overwhelming and should be used sparingly. In design, it is often used to grab attention in an energetic and comforting way.

Green

Photograph: Buzo Jesús (via Unsplash)

Green makes you feel optimistic and refreshed.

Green symbolizes health, new beginnings and wealth. Green is the easiest on the eyes and should be used to relax and create balance in a design. It is a great color to use if a company wants to depict growth, security or inspire possibility. Green can also feel calming and relaxing.

Blue makes you feel safe and relaxed.

Blue evokes feelings of calmness and spirituality as well as security and trust. Seeing the color blue causes the body to create chemicals that are calming. It is no surprise that it’s the most favored of the colors. Dark blues are great for corporate designs because it helps give a professional feel, but using too much can create a cold, disengaged feeling. Light blues give a more relaxing, friendly feel. Great examples are social sites like Facebook and Twitter who use lighter blues.

Purple

Photograph: Sandro Katalina (via Unsplash)

Purple makes you feel creative.

Purple is associated with mystery, creativity, royalty and wealth. Lighter shades of purple are often used to soothe or calm a viewer, hence why it is used in beauty products. Incorporate purple to make a design look more luxurious and wealthy or a lighter purple to show romance and mystery.

Pink makes you feel playful and romantic.

Pink represents femininity and romance, sensitivity and tenderness. It’s inherently sweet, cute and charming.

Brown

Photograph: Bruno Nascimento (via Unsplash)

Brown makes you feel down to earth.

Brown creates a sense of stability and support. It’s warm and friendly, practical and dependable, and can also represent the old fashioned and well established.

Black

Photograph: Hannah Troupe (via Unsplash)

Black feels sophisticated, classic and serious.

Black evokes power, luxury, elegance, but can also mean professionalism, neutrality and simplicity. It’s bold, powerful and is often used to evoke mystery. In certain contexts and cultures the color black can also refer to mourning or sadness.

White

Photograph: Philipp Berndt (via Unsplash)

White means minimalism and simplicity. Using a lot of white color in design creates a minimalist aesthetic and can result a simple, fresh and clean look.

In many cultures, white is used to refer to virginity, purity and innocence (think bridal gowns and baby clothes). It’s also the most neutral color of all.

Photograph: Tobias van Schneider (via Unsplash)

Gray feels serious and professional.

Gray is a more mature, responsible color. Its positive connotations include formality and dependability, while the negative side can mean being overly conservative, conventional and lacking in emotion. It’s safe and quite subdued, serious and reserved.

Colors and feelings are inextricably linked

It is important to note that colors can be subjective—what might make one person feel cheerful can make another person feel irritated depending on the viewers’ past experiences or cultural differences.

Color is not completely agreed on universally and can appeal differently to individual countries. But colors and emotions are closely linked no matter what, so you need to take their effects into account whenever you are using colors. Now that you know how colors and emotions are connected, you can choose colors accordingly and get the results you’re looking for.

How Colors Affect Our Everyday Lives

Everywhere we look we are surrounded by colors.

They are a major part of our lives, but they also affect our way of living. They can make us happy, sad, angry or melancholic, and we are also thought right from the beginning of our lives to put color tags on thing. Just think about babies in a maternity, boys receive blue colored clothing and girl have the pink color. When we see red, we think about Coca-Cola, green means healthy food, yellow is related to McDonald’s and so on. So colors do play a significant role in our lives and our societies.

When you are decorating and renovating your home, you should study a bit about how each color can affect you. Being exposed to a certain color for a little while does not affect you too much, so you don’t notice any particular changes in the way you feel.

But having a wall painted in a particular color or have large items, like rugs or curtain, in a given color can have an effect on your mood. It is okay to feel drawn by a particular color, but check to see the deeper meaning of that color and what shade could be best for you.

Shades of light blue or turquoise can be suitable for the bathroom, for instance. They create the feeling you are entering a spa, a wellness oasis, as they can have calming and refreshing effects. Yellow can work great in your living room or working space because it is a fresh and energetic color.

Red or purple can go in the bedroom. Red, used in a proper amount and the right shade is a passionate color, indicating love and affection. Purple, especially the lavender shades bring states of calmness and peace. Orange is great for kitchens, but be careful as it can drive you to eat too much.

And the green should be used in the corners you will retreat for recharging your energy and relaxing, as this color means life and pure energy, bringing balance and chasing away stress.

Also, the colors of your clothing can be appropriate or not, in some situations, depending on the message you want to transmit. So you might wish to avoid wearing red at a job interview because it may be intimidating and aggressive. But red is also sensual so that it might be great for a romantic date.

At job, try using white, blue, brown or gray. They work great at interviews as well because they are calming and neutral colors, showing stability, seriousness, and an excellent organization.

For parties and a night out with friends, you can opt for the more daring colors, even black if you want to look mysterious.

So you see, colors have a great impact on our lives, and the big companies know this as well. They have been studying the way colors influences us since forever, looking for the best color to represent their labels.

Orange, the large communication corporation, chose the color with the same name because it represents freshness, energy and, above all, communication between people. The orange color makes you talk more.

Does it make sense now? Perhaps how you are going to look at colors from a different perspective.

3 comments

For my Art component 4 essay, I am researching the psychological impact of color on the human brain and I was hoping to find if there is proof such as CT scans (or something similar) of the brain when it has been exposed to different colors and whether or not colors like blue induce sadness and if different colors create different emotions. In short, I am wondering if there is actual scientific proof that color and psychology are linked and that different colors create different emotions. I am aware that this may be far fetched and not in your field of work but is it possible you can direct me to someone who may have had research on this?

Did Arthur Schoppenhauer write the quote:
White is a color of every day, black is a color of circumstance.
If noot do you know who did?

English Online

Colors are all around us and there is no way we can escape them. But what do certain colors stand for? The meaning of colors has changed in the course of history but certain facts are still true about them

Black

Black often means power and authority. Overweight people often wear black because it makes you look thinner. Black also means that you are willing to obey someone. Priests, for example, wear black because they obey God. Black also symbolizes evil and death. Villains often wear black clothes and people wear black at a funeral.

White

White is a symbol of innocence and cleanness. Brides and doctors wear white clothes to symbolize this. It is a popular color in fashion, especially during the summer months, because it fits to everything. White is a color that reflects light.

Red is a strong, powerful and aggressive color that attracts a lot of attention. People who have red cars may seem to want to show this. It is also the color of love.

Blue is the color of the sky and the oceans. As the opposite of red it means silence and peace. It is often a color which people use in their bedrooms because they may be able to sleep better. But blue is also a cold color that can be depressing. Blue stands for more productivity and business meetings are often held in blue rooms.

Green

Green is a symbol of nature. It is a calm color that stimulates you. Patients in hospitals often sit in green rooms to relax. Brides in the Middle Ages often wore green because they wanted to have many children.

Yellow

Yellow is a cheerful, optimistic colour. Yet, some people may get more aggressive in yellow rooms and babies often cry a lot.

Purple

Purple is the color of kings and queens. It symbolizes wealth and money. It is also a romantic color that stands for love.

Brown

Brown is the color of the earth. It can be found a lot in nature. Brown can be a sad color and sometimes it is connected with being more thoughtful.