If you’ve been using social media for some, you might have come across statements like this in the past, ‘yellow makes you happy’, ‘black makes you more confident’ and ‘blue is a calming colour’. How much of these are actually true. Can colours have an effect on our mood or behaviour? If yes, is it universal or culture-specific? And is it innate or learned?
Like in many other cases with psychology, the answer is a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’. Yes, most researches suggest that there is a relation between colours and emotions, but not always in predictable ways. It isn’t as simple as ‘blue is for calm’, ‘yellow is for happy’ and so on. There are multiple factors involved. One of the most famous research in colour psychology was conducted by Alexander Schauss in the 1960s. After years of experiments, he was convinced that the colour ‘pink’ has the ability to calm nerves- lower blood pressure and heart rate. He decided to test this theory in a prison under two officers- Baker and Miller. They painted the prison walls pink and after 5 months, there were no cases of violence or aggression reported. Naturally, they became deities of the pink colour, which later came to be known as Baker-Miller colour. However, the test procedure was hardly scientific and in clinically controlled trials, they failed to replicate the results. But there are authentic experiments that support the idea of colour influencing emotion as well. In 2012, a study was conducted in a casino in Netherland, where the participants were provided with either red or blue chips. The participants with red chips reported as being more in ‘game mood’ and played for a longer time than the ones with the blue chips who were relatively less competent. However, there is also a cultural factor involved in this study. This study might not have worked as expected in many other countries.
So, colour does affect our emotions and moods, we just don’t know why. Or do we? Well, we have some speculations or dare I say, calculated guesses. The studies so far don’t necessarily support the view that these colour related moods are universal. Rather, these associations between colour and emotions must be learned ones. But it is possible that a large proportion of people associate a specific colour with the same thing. For eg, the colour blue is mostly associated with the sky or water. So, the presence of the colour usually makes us calm or trusted. However, if you had a trauma in childhood where the colour blue was involved, you probably associate the colour with danger too. So, these differences between colour perception differ not only from country to country or culture to culture but also from person to person.
These colour associations are most commonly used in the advertisement industry. In shopping malls and stationaries, you see that items are mostly packed in red or that the price tag is red in colour. This is because the colour red is such an inviting colour and grasps attention. And a green packing is usually thought as eco-friendly, as we associate the colour with nature. Pink and violate often is used to symbolize luxury. And most of the products related to beauty, are packed in white giving out a vibe of purity and freshness. And we usually associate yellow with happiness, thus the classic yellow smiley face.
So it is safe to say that colours do affect our emotions or behaviours to some extent. But, this statement shouldn’t be exaggerated beyond proportion. If you slap a person on his face and then switch the blue lights on, it won't make him calm, rather you will be awarded a red colour on your cheek. The only question would be, how reddish?
