Color Psychology Is Bullshit?
“Color psychology is the study of hues as a determinant of human behavior. Color influences perceptions that are not obvious, such as the taste of food… Color can indeed influence a person; however, it is important to remember that these effects differ between people. ”- Wikipedia
Color has the power to affect our behavior and influence our decision-making process (e.g. “which one should I buy red or blue?”).
Lots of guides, infographics and theories had emerged trying to define or/and imply the different colors to different brands, products, interfaces and other aspects. The basic infographic looks like this:
· Red : anger, love
· Blue : trust, peace
· Green : health, nature
Has anyone thought if it is relevant? — Perhaps very less.
Many designers and businesses blindly use these guides to determine their works and brands color regardless of critical researches, results — hurting your conversations.
Sorry but also not sorry to tell you that every single color creates the same emotions for every single person is totally irrelevant.
“Our preference for a specific color can be related to how we feel in any situation, how we want to feel, and even how we remember certain experiences.” — Joe Hallock ‘Principle Design Manager at Microsoft’
There are aspects which colors affect our emotions:
1. Cultural and Religious Aspect.
2. Symbolism
3. Personal experiences and emotional attachment.
4. Color Relativity.
A. Cultural and Religious Aspect.
The perception of colors is found to be varying from culture to culture and religion to religion. In western culture, white color is commonly seen as the color for weddings and festive events while in eastern culture (mostly in south eastern) white color is perceived as the mourning color. Likewise for Christianity, black is the color for mourning while for Islamic it is offensive to address the black color as the color for mourning.
B. Symbolism
Just as in culture, different colors are assigned to different symbols conveying different meaning of the symbol. Yellow may signify sun whereas somewhere it means to wait or in progress. The red color gives a romance or love feeling, but also signifies danger.
C. Personal Experiences and Emotional Attachment.
The events that a person goes through also make the color perception vary for him. Also someone might be attached to the certain color emotionally. The researches tell that someone who is deceived in love might hate red color as it signifies romance and love. For some blue color may remind them of ocean, freedom and for some it may remind them of loneliness, and sad experience.
D. Color Relativity.
The communication of color varies based on the presentation and combination of the color. Contrast may play vital role for this aspect. Below is shown example how the same color varies with surrounding colors:
Then is Color Psychology Bullshit? — Possibly no.
It’s true that color-emotion relationship varies from person to person but there are some aspects that color is perceived globally. We cannot tell that pale blue color isn’t more tranquil than a bright red & yellow. There are some natural processes of color perceptions and affections regardless of any other aspects. For e.g. Reds and Yellows in particular are warning colors that the brain reacts to. Research shows that color and light can affect our mood, heart rate, sleep and even our well-being.
Perhaps the color psychology guides and theories were built summarizing the above aspects and brain interactions to the color. We couldn’t totally decline the color psychology — It is theory after all. Only it needs to be used in right/wise way.
Choosing Right Color for your Brands:
There are some considerations to make while choosing colors to the brand. Some of them are mentioned below;
· Culture Identification: It would be the plus point for you if you can identify the target audiences’ geographical location which determines different cultures.
· Age and Gender: Try to make a color scheme according to the target audiences’ age and gender.
· Contrast is all that matters: As of the color relativity, contrast plays vital role in color variants. Contracts are not only meant for the buttons or images but every color on the page. It helps in enhancement of clarity and content readability. Make sure each color in the page supports each other.
· Color Tranquility: One should consider if his brand or design color is convenient to look at. for e.g.:
· Competitors’ Color
· Brand’s Motive
