Psychologists say colors create different feelings and emotions in people. Cultural imprinting, biological conditioning, and psychological effects could play a role in how a specific color affects individuals. However, certain reactions apply to most people. I have long been fascinated with colors.
Colors can be warm, cool, happy, sad, calming or energizing. It does not apply only to interior decoration but also to the clothes we wear. Additionally, color psychology plays a significant role in the marketing and advertising industry, and the colors of food can serve to make our mouths water or cause nausea!
Let’s see whether you react in the ways professed by psychologists when you see the following colors.
I’ll start with the color red
Red can trigger contrasting emotions. Imagine greeting cards and party decorations for Valentine’s Day. Picture the cute little teddy bears wearing red hats and holding red hearts while blowing red heart-shaped kisses. Now, compare that to the bullfighting images with a dust cloud and a bull charging the matador holding the red cape. That shows that red invokes both love and anger. Additionally, red signifies strength, courage and power, and it stimulates appetite and has a strong link with sexuality. (FYI — Bulls are actually color blind)
Does the color orange energize you?
Energized and enthusiastic is what color psychologists say about the color orange. Furthermore, it portrays encouragement, self-confidence and optimism, and is often associated with extroverts. Orange also inspires courage, vitality and rejuvenation, and it stimulates appetite.
Have you ever wondered why the color of legal pads is yellow?
The bright yellow of post-it notes and legal note pads is not just a potluck choice at random. In fact, yellow resonates with the intellectual or logical left side of your brain. Yellow indicates creativity and promotes new ideas and different ways to do things. Yellow is illuminating, uplifting and it offers hope, fun and happiness, and brightens people’s spirits.
Green is the color of nature
Green symbolizes healing, stability and harmony, and it is a secure and restful color. Interestingly, dark shades of green indicate prestige, money and health. When it comes to the lighter hues of green, it relates to freshness, growth and rebirth.
The color blue has a calming effect
In contrast to red, a fiery color, blue has a calming effect that reduces fear and tension. It also suggests integrity, loyalty along with predictability and conservatism. Furthermore, blue inspires higher ideals and wisdom in quiet, reserved and sincere people.
The color purple attracts sensitive people
Creativity, mystery, wealth and royalty are all associated with the color purple. Furthermore, it is the color of spirituality, imagination and aspirations to reach high ideals. It attracts people who are sensitive, compassionate, supportive and understanding, typically those who think of others before thinking of themselves.
Pink is a playful and romantic
Pink is charming, cute and sweet. It inspires comfortable, warm feelings that reassure and calm emotional energies. Furthermore, pink alleviates feelings of resentment, aggression, anger, neglect and abandonment.
Brown seems boring, but it’s not
Brown is a warm, friendly color that creates a sense of support and stability. Although it could seem well-established and old fashioned, brown is a sign of down to earth practicality and dependability.
Black is a color of many secrets
Black could refer to sadness and mourning in some instances and serious, classic sophistication in others. Because it sometimes relates to the unknown, secretive or hidden, it often creates feelings of mystery. However, according to color psychologists, black provides protection from emotional distress from external sources.
White is a sign of purity
White indicates perfection and purity. Psychologists say it means innocence, purity, completion and wholeness. Although white does not stimulate the senses, it’s a blank canvas that allows the creation of absolutely anything.
And what about gray?
Do you agree that gray is unemotional? Some liken gray to a fence sitter because it is detached, indecisive, impartial and neutral. Therefore, psychologists see it as neither white nor black and a color of compromise.
Before you think there is something wrong if you react differently to the various colors, color psychologists say reactions are subjective. So if one color makes your friend feel happy while it irritates you, don’t stress, be yourself.
