The Psychology of Color is primarily still
within the realms of folk or commonsense psychology and has been widely
associated with culture. The significance of color could well be related
with particular cultures, emotions and situations although there are
very few scientific experiments on color or a scientifically valid
'color psychology'. The psychology of color studies the effects of
colors on human feelings and behavior. It is usually believed that red
makes people happy or fervent and yellow raises alertness, white is
about purity and cleanliness, black evokes a sense of mystery, loss or
anonymity.
Some of the earlier theories of color and its
association with psychology could be traced back to Goethe who suggested
that colors may have moral associations and tend to produce extreme
emotional states such as blue produces tranquility and red creates
aroused emotional states. Luscher, a Swiss psychologist suggested that
individual personality traits could be associated with preferences for
certain colors. However such tests have long been considered as
unscientific and inaccurate and no general scientific consensus has been
reached on the effects of colors on human emotions. Yet color theory
and the supposed impact of colors have been widely recognized and
applied in all facets of life from advertisements to interior designs.
Colors
that are abundant in nature such as blue, green and brown have greater
acceptability and blue being the color of the sky or perceived as color
of water bodies seems to have a soothing protective effect and people
associate blue with calm, tranquility and serenity. Green is the color
of leaves and symbolizes new life, personal growth and change so is also
a well accepted and positive color. Brown is a neutral color yet
represents earthiness, depth and wholesomeness.
Natural colors are
well accepted and universal simply because of their familiarity and
this concept could well be used in colors for advertisements or
products. Natural products should be sold in boxes or cans with natural
colors or should represent the color of products. Thus lemon juice is
best sold in a yellow or green colored container rather than a red one.
In fact in case of advertisements and products, red cans are associated
with cola as transparent bottles with blue labels are for mineral water
and such already established consumer associations should be considered
before launching products and advertisements. A completely black can of
any drink could be considered as mysterious, dangerous or even poisonous
and sales may be affected even if the product inside is pretty
harmless. In fact for fizzy drinks or coffee or cocoa, brown or a
mixture of black and brown could be more suitable than only black as the
color of the containers. For selling beer or soda, containers or cans
of neutral colors like beige, light brown and faded golden would be more
appropriate.
In a similar manner websites should also enhance the
spirit of the products or services offered with its unique colors. A
site providing wedding services should have white or pink as its primary
color and a site providing funeral services could have black or grey as
the primary color. This is however culturally variant as events such as
birth, death, marriage are represented with different colors in
different societies. In some eastern societies, red represents
celebration and marriage whereas in western societies, white is widely
used in marriage. White is used as the color of death, sterility and
loss in eastern societies whereas in the west, black is the color of
mourning and loss. The use of colors in different cultures and societies
may provide insights into the cultural concepts as white representing
death in eastern societies may not only represent high levels of purity
but also rebirth and transition to another form. Leaving one bodily
condition for another as death is widely believed in the East may also
be perceived as reason for celebration rather than mourning. Thus in
general , it cn be interpreted that all celebrations are usually
represented with white. Death in the west is associated with darkness,
evil, end or loss and black as the concept of rebirth for a next stage
of life is not present in western societies. This may be the core
differentiation between materialistic and spiritualistic societies that
provides insights into color psychology as well.
Moving on to the
use of colors in practical life, psychology will have to study the
impact of colors in humans more systematically and scientifically. There
are some color experiments that relate to vision and perception
although the main processes in color perception are:
- Attention - as measured with reaction time when a color is seen
- Association - as measured with preference for a particular color to represent particular events and situations
- Retention - as measured with prediction using memory and experience to define particular attributes of color
The properties of color comprising of hue, saturation and
brightness tend to affect reaction time as strong colors like red and
yellow can evoke the fastest reaction times and are attention getting
colors. We are quickly attracted to red, yellow and orange although
association of particular colors with particular events can lead to
general preference for such colors. Thus red is generally preferred as
an emergency color for dangers or warnings and in ambulance or fire
services and using any other color will fail to produce a similar
association. White is a strong color but may not be conspicuous or
attention getting during the day. Thus color perception is not only
dependent on attention drawing properties of color but also the
association of colors with certain attributes due to our social or
cultural knowledge. This can in a way evoke human emotions although the
emotional aspect of color psychology should require a different kind of
study.
Retention is the last phase of color perception which in turn
evokes reactions as from our memory we predict that certain colors have
certain associative values and properties or represent certain
established concepts, so red means love, blue means calm, white means
peace or purity and so on.
The psychology of color should thus have two distinct branches -
1.
The effects of color on human emotions - the emotional and cultural
aspects of color psychology showing significance of color in evoking
human emotions
2. The effects of color on human cognition and
perception - the biological and physiological reactions to color
involving the phases of attention, association and retention
Both
these effects of color will have to be integrated in psychology to
understand the real significance of color in shaping human reactions,
thoughts, emotions and actions. These two distinct branches of color
psychology should be included not only as a theoretical framework in the
study of the psychology of color but also as a practical framework for
applying color psychology in advertisements, products and services. We
live in times when the visual medium has attained considerable
significance with advertisements of products and messages featured on
the internet, television, newspapers, billboards etc. The visual stimuli
are an important aspect of modern life as we are bombarded with visual
information and the role of color seems central to our visual
experiences.
Thus color psychology should be comprehensively and
scientifically studied and applied to all aspects of human enterprise,
including businesses and education and both the branches of color
psychology dealing with human emotions and human cognition/perception
will have to be studied as an integral unit to understand the social,
cultural, physiological, cognitive and emotional dimensions of the
psychology of color.
Reflections in Psychology - Part I - by Saberi Roy (2009)
http://www.lulu.com/content/5865445
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