Understanding Color Psychology: A Literature Review

“Color is a power which directly influences the soul.” ~Wassily Kandinsky

The relation between colors and emotions is as archaic as the evolution of sentient vision itself. Embedded deep in the subconscious of life, ever since we appeared on this planet, colors have had a strong influence on our cognition. Not a miraculous coincidence by any means considering the richness of colors in the nature around us. Today, extensive research and experiments show a strong correlation between colors and human emotions, which in turn are found to affect our preferences. This intriguing relationship has kindled several commercial applications that have forever changed the way we perceive colors.

How did this perception come to be? How does color affect our psychology? There are a lot more questions to ponder as here we explore the connection between the shades of nature and the human mind.

The Correlation Between Colors and Emotions

The unwavering blue sky, the fluttering green leaves, or the immovable brown rocks, the world around us is made of colors. Naturally, we, who evolved in such an ecosystem developed a pretext to certain hues. For example, since the prehistoric era, blue has been associated with calmness, serenity, and in some parts of the world to royalty[1]. On the other hand, the ancient Egyptians associated the color red with evil entities or destruction as well as vitality and celebration. Every color has its own rich history and interpretation that varies not just from one place to another but also through different eras. In most cases, it appears to reflect on the culture and utility in which they are used by these civilizations. Most human emotions evoked by colors seem to stem from the situations in which one encounters that particular color rather than the color itself. This could also be the reason for the existence of multiple interpretations.

One interesting example in this aspect is of how the color yellow has been perceived. The Sun is a direct source of this shade in nature. Aptly, yellow is associated with energy, joy, and happiness. Yellow is the color of wealth. But it also symbolizes something toxic as yellow pigments are usually found in such chemicals. Scientists today use it for marking noxious chemicals. All this diversity in perception based on locality, profession, and context brings us to one inevitable question, “Is there any universal symbolism to colors and can there be a model to unanimously map colors to distinct human emotions?” A local solution applicable to certain groups of people is definitely possible. One compelling approach is to tackle this from a religious point of view. For example, the seven deadly sins from the Christian teachings are associated with seven distinct colors. That could provide some hints to a unique correlation. In fact, our color coding scheme is loosely inspired by the same which will be explored in the later part of the report. However, a global solution appears to be highly improbable.

Connecting the Dots From Colors To Emotions

Research suggests that the kinship between colors and emotions is laid down by at least three different sources namely, evolution, culture, and personal experience[2]. Natural selection enabled those exhibiting specific emotions/reactions towards certain colors to flourish. For example, as described by Shannon B. Cuykendall and Donald D. Hoffman, a pool of water that is murky blue might trigger an emotion of disgust, and avoidance of a potentially harmful drink.

The origin of emotions as reactions to colors came to be as an adaptation for survival that helped individuals to navigate and assess their surrounding environment better. This understanding is the closest we have ever been to a universal color coding scheme that could be applicable to most homo sapiens if not all. However, with the rise of civilizations and the advent of cultural differences and religious practices, things became more complicated.

Culture-specific emotions are easy to identify. Some subtle examples include the red and yellow of a bullfighter’s cape in Spanish culture, the blacks, and oranges of Halloween, or the delicate pinks of the Japanese cherry tree[2]. In all these instances, the associated colors might trigger special emotions specific to the corresponding race as they symbolize rich cultural history unique to their local group.

Our perception of colors is also heavily influenced by our own personal experience. For example, consider a toddler who incidentally encounters a rare breed of green colored spider and freaks out. That experience will create an imprint in their memory and he may grow up to associate the color green with fear. Several such personal experiences can give quite a different meaning to the colors we encounter.

Psychological and Physiological Effects of Color

Having established the fact that there is a relation between colors and emotions, the next immediate avenue to be explored is how colors influence our psychology and other physical parameters. Is it possible to manipulate our feelings using colors? Several studies indicate in favor of this argument. To quote an example, warmer colors, especially red, is known to raise a person's blood pressure and stimulate the brain[3]. This color is also known to influence sports performance, including e-sports[4]. Some studies indicate that brightness, saturation, and hue of colors also have an impact on emotional states like arousal, dominance, and pleasure[5].

Major Applications of Color Psychology

A natural curiosity towards its use case prompted us to explore some fascinating applications

• Chromotherapy: Since ancient times, colors have been used to cure diseases, and this field of study is referred to as chromotherapy. Research indicates that certain parts of the brain are not only light sensitive but actually respond differently to different wavelengths[6], establishing the scientific basis behind why colors have such diverse impact. Studies also show that they can even be used to manipulate hormonal production. This, in turn, can help treat people with several mental disorders and hormonal problems. Chromotherapy has been successfully used in the treatment of several disorders like SAD (seasonal affective disorder, so-called winter depression), anorexia, bulimia nervosa, insomnia, jetlag, shift-working, alcohol, and drug dependency.
• Marketing and Advertising: Color of a product is known to directly influence consumer purchases. Companies pay keen attention to the choice of colors for their brands. With a better understanding of how colors can elicit people’s emotions, brands will be able to target their ads better.

Creating The Color Coding Scheme

Having done a thorough literature review, here are some solid conclusions. Everyone perceives color differently. History, nationality, religion, and gender can all affect how a person feels about color[3].

A color coding scheme must convey a solid idea to the viewer. For that to be impactful, we must have a very clear notion about our target audience. In our task, our target audience is the common citizen of India who read the newspaper daily. Colors should be carefully chosen to align with the key message and emotions being conveyed.

The pivotal step towards creating a robust color scheme is understanding the color wheel. A standard color wheel is made from the three primary colors: red, blue, and green. All the other colors are just combinations of these hues. By mixing two of the primary colors together, a secondary color is created. The secondary colors are yellow, orange, and purple. We take these as the base colors in our scheme.

Stay tuned for the next article where we create our color coding scheme for human emotions and apply the same to newspaper articles to perform qualitative analysis.

Edit 1: The next article is now published, 'Color Coding Of Emotions in Newspaper Articles: A Qualitative Analysis'.

References:

1. Stribley, M. (2019, February 01). The history of colors and what they mean.. Retrieved from https://www.canva.com/learn/color-meanings/
2. Cuykendall, S. B., & Hoffman, D. D. (2008). From color to emotion: Ideas and explorations. Irvine, CA: University of Irvine, California.
3. Connecting With Color. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.lyquix.com/blog/connecting-with-color
4. Diana Widermann, Robert A. Barton, and Russel A. Hill. Evolutionary perspectives on sport and competition. In Roberts, S. C. (2011). Roberts, S. Craig, ed. Applied Evolutionary Psychology. Oxford University Press.
5. Valdez, P., & Mehrabian, A. (1994). Effects of color on emotions. Journal of experimental psychology: General, 123(4), 394.
6. Azeemi, S. T. Y., & Raza, M. (2005). A critical analysis of chromotherapy and its scientific evolution. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine, 2(4), 481-488.
7. Deborah, Harris, C., Amelia, Kevin, Darida, A., Darida, A., . . . Art Therapy Team. (2012, December 24). Color Psychology: The Psychological Effects of Colors. Retrieved from https://www.arttherapyblog.com/online/color-psychology-psychologica-effects-of-colors/
8. Cherry, K. (n.d.). Can Color Affect Your Mood and Behavior? Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/color-psychology-2795824
9. Nijdam, N. A. (2009). Mapping emotion to color. Book Mapping emotion to color, 2-9.
10. Color psychology. (2019, March 08). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_psychology
11. Plutchik, R. (1997). The circumplex as a general model of the structure of emotions and personality. In R. Plutchik & H. R. Conte (Eds.), Circumplex models of personality and emotions (pp. 17-45). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/10261-001

Note: References have been superscripted to their corresponding numbers in the text as and when required attribution.

This literature review was conducted as a part of partial fulfillment of the coursework of HSOE14, Creative Writing Through Literature.

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