Cole Wagner

UWRT 1102
Professor Thomas
April 28, 2015

Emotional Effects of Exposure to Color

Color, what is it? Where does it come from? What is so significant
about color that makes it such a necessary part of life? Colors do many
things including, adding details to scenery, stimulating your senses, they can
even invoke emotions. Some might ask, how? In what ways are colors used
to invoke emotions.
The whole concept of color comes from the discovery of where color
comes from made by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666. Newton discovered that when
white/pure light passes through a prism it separates into many different
sections, each of those sections being a different color than the next. He
later discovered that each color comes from a single specific wavelength of
light that cannot be separated any further.
We were assigned to read The Book Thief for class. This novel is full of
emotional scenes because it is set in a very emotional time period, the
Holocaust. As I was reading this novel I began to notice a ton of imagery
words that were being used to describe the environment to set the tone of
the story. Many of those words included the colors of the world outside. It

made me begin to wonder, what kind of effects do colors have on a persons

emotions?
I remember going in depth about color and what color was to start my
art classes over the years. Obviously we would start with the obvious, the
color wheel, reasons for the colors being aligned the way they are. Then we
would talk about where color comes from and what exactly it is. To
demonstrate some of these ideas we would end up watch demonstrations
done by researchers on regular bystanders to show the ideas we were
learning about. Another idea we would study was how colors were not only
there to add detail to the scene they also had specific meanings or
interpretations.
One example of certain colors having a specific meaning is Pablo
Picassos Blue Period. All of Picassos works during this time were all painting
with only the color blue, and different shades of blue. Another attribute to
the works done during this period is that they were all very sad and
depressing pieces. It may seem like just a random color choice, but blue and
sadness/depression actually correlate. This is just one example of one color

having a specific meaning/interpretation.

The picture seen above is the piece by Pablo Picasso called The Old
Guitarist. This piece is a great example of colors being used to show a
specific emotion. In the piece the guitarist looks beat down and tired of life. It
is a very depressing piece, which is why it is painted with only the color blue.
Just like the music genre the blues, when blue is used in a painting it
usually stands for hard times or sad feelings.
With the idea in mind of specific colors having specific meanings
associated with each one, I decided to research more in depth about this
idea to find more information on how colors can affect a persons state of
mind. Most of my information came from psychology related works. I looked
for information about specific colors having certain observable effects on
emotions.
Physical effects of color on the human organism will result in
psychological reactions. John Otts, a cinematographer, explains, Behind the
psychological responses to color are more basic responses to specific
wavelengths of radiant energy (Light, Color and Environment 27). Its
obvious that a person is more likely to feel cheerful on a sunny day
compared to on a rainy day. Colors also have this effect, for example red may
cause someone to become more excited, and blue may cause a person to
become down or calm (Light, Color, and Environment 27).
Studies on similar ideas continued to be conducted to gain more
knowledge on the subject. Felix Deutsch, a physician in the 1900s,

researched the effect of color on emotions. He states in his findings, Every

action of light has in its influence physical as well as psychic components.
Another way to state it is that light energy affects a humans body directly as
well as through the eye and brain (Color and Human Response 46). Common
observation shows that the moods of individuals are affected by the
environment, by ugly scenes and beautiful scenes, by positive, sunny
weather and gloomy, rainy weather. When placed in a bright, harmonious
setting, a majority of people will find their dispositions improved. For
example, these people may be in a better spirit than they were before being
placed in that setting (Color and Human Response 46).
I read an article entitled Effects of Color on Emotions, to find
information on the subject. For this article many studies were done to
experiment with various colors to see if and how emotions were affected by
exposure to various colors. Wexner, a color psychologist, performed a test to
compare the emotional thoughts when hearing simply the words for colors.
The results showed that red was associated with feelings such as exciting,
or stimulating, which are associated with pleasure and high arousal (Valdez
396). Other tests were mentioned in the article such as one done by
psychologists, Jacobs and Suess. They wanted to investigate the emotional
effects of four primary colors, red, yellow, blue, and green. Each individual
color was projected on a screen in front of the participants and their anxiety
levels were recorded with each color. Red and yellow caused the highest
amount of anxiety and green and blue were the most relaxing (Valdez 396).

A test was done to judge peoples characters and what kind of

personality they have. The goal of the test was to see what colors were
chosen by the participants. The participants were asked to rank seventythree different patches based on their preference. Just as the researcher had
hypothesized, the most popular color was blue. Blue is the most preferred
color because it is a calming color, it is passive sensitive and unifying. On the
opposite side of the spectrum orange-red was the least preferred color
(Gage, John). These results are because red and orange are both threatening
colors, they are not appealing to the eye. The participants character was the
assessed based on how he/she ranked each color.
More studies were conducted along the way such as one where the
participants were asked to tell which person they thought had more power,
the person in the darker colored suit or the person in the lighter colored suit.
The results showed that the participants chose the person in the darker
colored suit (Valdez 396). A similar test was done to see which would cause
more aggressiveness in a hockey/football team, black or darker colored
uniforms or nonblack/lighter colored uniforms. The results showed that the
team wearing the darker colored uniforms not only looked more aggressive,
they acted more aggressive (Valdez 396).
An article titled Blue is Beautiful appeared in the September 17,
1973 issue of Time magazine. Within the article was reference of the work of
a man named Henner Ertel, director of an institute for rational psychology at
Munich. A three year study was done to compare the effects of color on

children pertaining to education and creativity. Children were placed in

different rooms painted in various colors such as, light blue, yellow-green,
and orange. The children placed in these rooms had a much higher IQ score
than the children placed in rooms painted with white, black and brown (Color
and Human Response 51). Play rooms that were also painted with white,
black or brown made the children less imaginative and uncreative. On the
other hand the rooms painted with brighter colors stimulated creativity and
alertness in the children (Color and Human Response 51).
When looking back at historical examples of how colors were used,
there are many different ways color was used in everyday life. For example,
in some ancient cultures like ancient Egypt and Chinese, color was used to
heal. The idea of using colors medically became to be known as
chromotherapy. For this treatment, each color had its own purpose:

Red- used to stimulate the body and mind to increase circulation

Yellow- stimulate the nerves and purify the body
Orange- used to heal the lungs and increase energy levels
Blue- used to soothe illnesses and treat pain
Indigo- thought to alleviate skin problems

Ancient Chinese and Egyptian cultures are just two examples of how colors
can be used. However, these beliefs may differ when examining other
cultures beliefs.
Some interpretations of colors come from the general public, but those
interpretations dont necessarily mean they are correct. For example the

general public may believe the following ideas associated with specific
colors:

White- innocence and purity

Orange- fiery and lust

Yellow-new life and new

Purple- wealth and royalty

Aqua- coolness and water

Black- mourning and death

beginnings

Brown- poverty and earth

This may be the general publics ideas of color, but what kind of ideas would
be associated with each color if you were to ask another person with a
different cultural background?
In most cases if you were to ask someone to describe the devil, they
would most likely have an image of a red dude with a pitchfork, horns, and
maybe furry goat legs. If a personality was to be placed with that image
most would probably say that the Devil is evil, unmerciful, and monstrous.
We see the Devil with the color red because red in most cases is interpreted
as bad or unpleasing. How would a person whose cultural background causes
them to see red as passionate and sensual react if red was associated with
the Devil? That person definitely wouldnt see the Devil as being as evil, the
color red wouldnt match the image of the Devil (Luber, Jodi).
Now that we have seen examples of how there isnt one 100% correct
answer to the question What kind of attributes are given to certain colors,
its time to show some specific examples of certain colors having multiple
attributes. It is believed that yellow is considered dual natured, which is
when there are two contradictory attributes associated with a color. Yellow
can be seen as a good thing, like sunshine or accomplishing something
great. Your teacher may put a yellow smiley face sticker on your assignment
if you did a good job. Yellow can also be interpreted as a bad thing; for
example yellow is often associated with skin issues and bad hygiene (Pung,
Corey). Obviously the first example is more pleasant than the second, which
is exactly what it means to be dual-natured.

Obviously, there are many ways to interpret color, there isnt one
single correct answer. Colors do affect emotions in many ways, and they are
often associated with many various things, but it all depends on who you are
when youre looking at them or reading them. Another way to say this is;
color is arbitrary. There isnt one way to look at it. The feelings or emotions
you feel from seeing colors really depends on who you are. Every person
may have a different interpretation.

Works Cited
Birren, Faber. Color & Human Response. New York, NY: Litton Educational
Publishing, Inc., 1978. Print.
Birren, Faber. Light, Color and Environment. New York, NY: Reinhold Book
Corporation, 1969. Print.
Cherry, Kendra. "Color Psychology." About Education. About.com, 2015. Web.
23 Mar. 2015.
Gage, John. Color and Meaning. University of California Press Berkeley and
Los Angeles, California, CA: Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1999.
Print.
Luber, Jodi. "Different Hues in a Narrative." Color Symbolism in Literature.
Womans forum, Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
Pung, Corey. "The Use of Color in Literature and Film." Coreys Books Essays.
wordpress.com, 21 Oct. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2015
Valdez, Patricia, and Albert Mehrabian. "Effects of Color on Emotions." Journal
of Experimental Psychology: General123.4 (1994): 394-409. EBSCO
Host. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.