Color psychology

The general model of color psychology relies on six basic principles: • Color may carry a specific meaning. • Color meaning is either based in learned meaning or biologically innate meaning. • The perception of a color causes evaluation automatically by the person perceiving. • The evaluation process forces color-motivated behavior. • Color usually exerts its influence automatically. • Color meaning and effect has to do with context as well. == Embodied and referential theory of color ==

According to the embodied and referential theory of color, color may convey two types of meaning that uniquely stimulate and shape consumer preferences and behaviors. • Referential meaning arises from the network of semantic associations that emerge through exposure to color stimuli. As such, referential meaning is learned and often dependent on contextual cues. For example, the referential meaning conveyed by the use of the color brown in effervescent beverages can evoke notions of cola taste, which are drawn from the learned association of prominent cola brands adding caramel color to their products. • Embodied meaning results from attributes embodied in the aesthetic stimulus, independent of context and the semantic content it may evoke. This meaning is evoked from properties within the stimulus, that is feelings and other responses are activated simply from exposure to the color. For example, long wavelength colors such as red may stimulate arousal and increase attention. This model proposes that biological responses to color (e.g., physiological responses such as increased heart rate or attention) are driven by the embodied meaning of a color. • The model also considers that influencers of color experience do not act in isolation. For instance, some learned color associations may represent a cognitive reinforcing or alteration of biologically based phenomena. Moreover, color associations may vary by culture and learned color associations may also influence some cultural aspects. • The theory notes the importance of context for referential meanings of color (i.e., these meanings are context-dependent, while the embodied meanings are not). == Influence of color on perception ==

Multiple researchers propose that one factor in the evolution of primate trichromatic color vision is to allow for better perception of the emotions or condition of others that can prove highly useful for complex social interaction. For example, flushed or pale skin can non-verbally communicate whether one is excited or sickly. Besides its use for social situations, color has an impact in multiple facets of our perceptions. Taste Color also affects how people perceive the edibility and flavor of foods and drinks. This extends beyond just the color of the food. The packaging of the food and its placement among other foods and objects also affect how people perceive it. For example, in food stores, bread is normally sold in packaging decorated with or tinted with golden or brown tones to promote the idea of home-baked and oven-freshness. People might mistake a cherry-flavored drink for being lime or lemon flavored if that drink was a green color. Additionally, a flavor may seem to be intensified by a color. People may rate a brown M&M as more chocolate flavored than a green M&M, based on color alone. Time Recent studies showed that the perceived duration of a red screen was longer than that of a blue screen. The results reflected gender differences; men overestimated the duration of the red screen. Additionally, the reaction times to a red screen were faster than those to a blue screen. Participants who reacted quickly to a red screen overestimated its duration. In a demo with 150 people chosen at random, it was found that inside a pod bathed in blue color, the average perceived duration of a minute was 11 seconds shorter than while in a pod bathed in red color. However, another study looking at perceived duration found opposite results regarding blue and red stimuli. Light The color of a light source affects the apparent color of an object the light shines on. For example, the color of an object might appear different in the light from the sun versus from an incandescent (tungsten) light bulb. With the incandescent light bulb, the object might appear more orange or "brownish", and dark colors might look even darker. Light and the color of an object may affect how one perceives its positioning. If light or shadow, or the color of the object, masks an object's true contour (outline of a figure) it may appear to be shaped differently from reality. A railroad company in Japan installed blue lighting at its stations in October 2009 in an effort to reduce the number of rail suicide attempts, although the effect of this technique has been questioned. In 2000, the city of Glasgow installed blue street lighting in certain neighborhoods and subsequently reported the anecdotal finding of reduced crime in these areas. Lighting color could also have a strong effect on perceived experience in stores and other situations. For example, time seems to pass more slowly under red lights and time seems to pass quickly under blue light. Pharmaceuticals The color of placebo pills is reported to be a factor in their effectiveness, with "hot-colored" (red, yellow, etc.) pills working better as stimulants and "cool-colored" (blue, purple, etc.) pills working better as depressants. This relationship is believed to be a consequence of patient expectations and not a direct effect of the color. Consequently, these effects appear to be culture-dependent. == Color preference and the connection between color and emotion ==

How people respond to different color stimuli varies from person to person. In a U.S. study by Lamancusa, blue is the top choice at 35%, followed by green (16%), purple (10%), and red (9%). A concept proposed by Dutton in evolutionary aesthetics is that blue and green may reflect a preference for certain habitats that were beneficial in an "ancestral environment". Orange, yellow, and brown are reported as the least popular colors, respectively. This theory asserts that people tend to like or dislike colors based on their associations of the color to other objects or situations that they have strong feelings about. For example, if someone associates the color blue with clean water, they would be more likely to favor blue. On the other hand, dislike of the color brown could be due to associations with feces or rotten food. Another theory indicates that color preference may depend on ambient temperature. People who are cold are reported to select warm colors such as red or yellow often, while people who are hot favor cool colors such as blue and green. Psychologist Andrew J. Elliot tested to see if the color of a person's clothing could make them appear more sexually appealing. He found heterosexual men and women dressed in red were significantly more likely to attract romantic attention from each other than when dressed in any other color. The color did not affect heterosexual women's assessment of other women's attractiveness (unrelated to romance). Other studies also have shown men dressed in red appeal to heterosexual women. The Kelvin scale is used to quantify a color temperature spectrum that may be used to describe a light's warmth or coolness. These numbers are used to characterize the hue of artificial light. Since each person has their own unique method of perceiving color, there are a variety of color temperatures that will work well for certain tasks according to this scale. Neutral and soft white is a friendly and clean light best for kitchens and bathrooms or any kind of workspace; cool light is adequate for offices, hospitals, and other commercial uses; and warm light creates a cozy, calm, inviting atmosphere that is ideal for bedrooms, living rooms, family rooms, dining rooms, and other spaces requiring an intimate, personal mood. In terms of brain mechanisms, areas of the visual cortex (usually V4 and V8) are associated with color perception, while completely different regions of the brain (usually the amygdala and other limbic structures) are associated with emotions. However, fMRI studies have shown that tasks requiring color-emotional integration show strong bilateral activation in areas of the brain that connect the visual cortex with limbic areas, and this activation is shown to largely coincide with the activity of the Default mode network. Thus, the connection between colors and emotions at the brain level can be explained by the functioning of part of the Default mode network. == Uses in marketing ==

Since color is an important factor in the visual appearance of products as well as in brand recognition, color psychology has become important to marketing. Recent work in marketing has shown that color may be used to communicate brand personality. Marketers must be aware of the application of color in different media (e.g. print vs. web), as well as the varying meanings and emotions that a particular audience assigns to color. Even though there are attempts to classify consumer responses to different colors, everyone perceives color differently. The physiological and emotional effect of color in each person is influenced by several factors such as past experiences, culture, religion, natural environment, gender, ethnicity, and nationality. When making color decisions, it is important to determine the target audience in order to convey the right message. Color decisions can influence both direct messages and secondary brand values and attributes in any communication. Color should be carefully selected to align with the key message and emotions being conveyed in a marketing piece. Research on the effects of color on product preference and marketing show that product color could affect consumer preference and hence purchasing culture. This is mostly due to associative learning. Most results show that no specific color attracts all audiences, but that certain colors are deemed appropriate for certain products. Brand meaning Color is a very influential source of information when people are making a purchasing decision. Customers generally make an initial judgment about a product within 90 seconds of interaction with that product and approximately 62–90% of that judgment is based on color. A widely recognized example is Tiffany & Co.'s use of "Tiffany Blue," a trademarked color that has become strongly associated with the brand's identity and luxury positioning. Color mapping provides a means of identifying potential logo colors for new brands and ensuring brand differentiation within a visually cluttered marketplace. A study on logo color asked participants to rate how appropriate the logo color was for fictional companies based on the products each company produced. Participants were presented with fictional products in eight different colors identified as either "functional" or "sensory-social" and they had to rate the appropriateness of the color for each product. This study showed a pattern of logo color appropriateness based on product type. If the product was considered functional, fulfills a need or solves a problem, then a functional color was seen as most appropriate. If the product was seen as sensory-social, conveys attitudes, status, or social approval, then sensory-social colors were seen as more appropriate. that determined that color affects people's perceptions of a new or unknown company. Some companies such as Victoria's Secret and H&R Block used color to change their corporate image and create a new brand personality for a specific target audience. The use of color will have different effects on different people, therefore experimental findings must not be taken as universally true. Specific color meanings Different colors are perceived to mean different things. For example, tones of red lead to feelings of arousal while blue tones are often associated with feelings of relaxation. Both of these emotions are pleasant, so therefore, the colors themselves can procure positive feelings in advertisements. The chart below gives perceived meanings of different colors in the United States. Functional (F): fulfills a need or solves a problem These correlations are commonly stylized and conventionalized, so that the color with the most intuitive meaning is often the nearest prototypical named color rather than that most similar to the real-world color (e.g., in very rare locations, water depth is symbolized using different shades of the color blue). Common, but by no means authoritative or exhaustive, examples include: • Green: vegetation • Blue: water (water bodies, precipitation), cold • Gray/Black: human structures (roads, buildings) • Brown: soil • Yellow: dryness • Red: heat, wildfire • Purple: unnatural (contrasting with natural connotations of green, yellow, blue) Other colors may have intuitive meaning due to their role in Gestalt psychology and other cognitive aspects of the map-reading process. For example, shades that contrast most with the background (i.e., dark on a white page, light on a dark screen) are naturally perceived as "more" (higher values of quantitative properties, more important in the Visual hierarchy) than shades with less contrast. Combining colors Although some companies use a single color to represent their brand, many other companies use a combination of colors in their logo, and the combination may be perceived in different ways than those colors independently. When asked to rate color pair preference of preselected pairs, people generally prefer color pairs with similar hues when the two colors are both in the foreground; however, greater contrast between the figure and the background is preferred. In contrast to a strong preference for similar color combinations, some study subjects demonstrate a preference for accenting with a highly contrasting color. In a study on color preference for Nike, Inc. sneakers, subjects generally combined colors near each other on the color wheel, such as blue and dark blue. However, a smaller segment preferred to have the Nike swoosh accentuated in a different, and contrasting, color. Most of the study subjects used a relatively small number of colors when designing their ideal athletic shoe. This finding has relevance for companies that produce multicolored merchandise, suggesting that to appeal to consumer preferences, companies should consider minimizing the number of colors visible and using similar hues in any one product. In fact, the same paint color swatch with two different names produced different rating levels, and the same effect was found when participants rated the pleasantness of towels given fancy or generic color names, A yellow jelly bean with an atypical color name such as goldenrod is more likely to be selected than one with a more typical name such as lemon yellow. This could be due to greater interest in atypical names, as well as curiosity and willingness to "figure out" why that name was chosen. Purchasing intent patterns regarding custom sweatshirts from an online vendor also revealed a preference for atypical names. Participants were asked to imagine buying sweatshirts and were provided with a variety of color name options, some typical, some atypical. Color names that were atypical were selected more often than typical color names, again confirming a preference for atypical color names and for item descriptions using those names. Consumers use color to identify for known brands or search for new alternatives. Variety seekers look for non-typical colors when selecting new brands. Attractive color packaging receives more consumer attention than unattractive color packaging, which can then influence buying behavior. A study that looked at visual color cues focused on predicted purchasing behavior for known and unknown brands. Research looking at electroencephalography (EEGs) while subjects made decisions on color preference, found brain activation when a favorite color is present, before the participants consciously focused on it. When looking at various colors on a screen the subjects focused on their favorite color, or the color that stood out more, before they purposefully turned their attention to it. This implies that products can capture customer attention based on color, before they examine the product closely. Store and display color Color is not only used in products to attract attention, but also in window displays and stores. When study subjects are exposed to different colored walls and images of window displays and store interiors they tend to be drawn to some colors and not to others. Findings showed that subjects were physically drawn to warm colored displays; however, they rated cool colored displays as more favorable. This implies that warm colored store displays are more appropriate for spontaneous and unplanned purchases, whereas cool colored displays and store entrances may be a better fit for purchases where a lot of planning and customer deliberation occurs. This is especially relevant in shopping malls where patrons could easily walk into a store that attracts their attention without previous planning. When study subjects are exposed to different store color scenarios and then surveyed on intended buying behavior, among various other factors, store color is important for purchasing intentions. Blue, a cool color, was rated as more favorable and produced higher purchasing intentions than orange, a warm color. However, all negative effects to orange were neutralized when orange store color was paired with soft lighting. This shows that store color and lighting interact significantly. In this research, participants were not exposed to different colors of stores, but instead, color and lights were manipulated through the written description of the store. == Applications for therapy ==

Art therapy Art therapy is a separate but related field of applied psychology. It comes from psychoanalytic theories in the 1970s that argued that some of our emotions and experiences cannot be expressed in words alone, but in images and colors. One intersection where color psychology could be of use to art therapists is in evaluating what certain colors mean to clients when they use them to create art pieces. Even the lack of color use may be an important detail in art therapy, as people struggling with depression were shown to tend to use less color when they are painting. This therapy has been researched to treat multiple physiological and psychiatric conditions, such as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), age-related cognitive decline, depression, and hypertension among others. Many in the healthcare field believe that chromotherapy does not have a robust research backing and have described it as a pseudoscience. Other sources claim that while certain colors have been shown as beneficial to wellbeing, the clear definition of what wavelengths are beneficial and exactly how these benefits occur is not clear enough to put them to use in a medical setting. == Individual differences ==

Gender Children's toys are often categorized as either boys or girls toys solely based on color. In a study on color effects on perception, adult participants were shown blurred images of children's toys where the only decipherable feature visible was the toy's color. An analysis of the colors used showed that bold colored toys, such as red and black, were generally classified as 'boy only' toys and pastel colored toys, such as pink and purple, were classified as 'girl only' toys. Toys that were classified as both boy and girl toys took on 'boy only' toy colors. This again emphasizes the distinction in color use for children's toys. Differences were noted for male and female participants, where the two genders did not agree on which color pairs they enjoyed the most when presented with a variety of colors. Men and women also did not agree on which colors should be classified as masculine and feminine. This could imply that men and women generally prefer different colors when purchasing items. Men and women also misperceive what colors the opposite gender views as fitting for them. Gender has also shown to influence how colors are received, with some research suggesting women and men respectively prefer "warm" and "cool" colors. Research has looked at the preference of young children, ages 7 months to 5 years, for small objects in different colors. The results showed that by the age of 2–2.5 years socially constructed gendered colors affects children's color preference, where girls prefer pink and boys avoid pink, but show no preference for other colors. Children's perceptions for color may be seen in a preference for a certain color of a food. The taste perceptions of all colors are not all the same with children and adults. "Each primary color has its own specific taste and the taste of secondary colors is a common taste of their constituent primary colors." Primary colors such as red and yellow, would indicate a similar taste when comparing pink and orange in a red/pink and yellow/orange pairing. It is perceived that infants prefer the pastel pinks and blues that are considered traditionally pleasant for a babies room. Busy patterns and strong colors in an infant's room is thought to contribute to hyperactivity, lack of sleep, and restlessness. Color priming and infants could be an example of acquired distinctiveness, which is one form of learning that suggests one source of information can predict the outcome, and any future associations with a color could be altered by the nature of this relation. Still, in other research, using pastels or neutral colors can affect the infant's perception to recognize color and give a better insight into their world of color psychology. Ecological valence theory has been cited as a possible reason for differences in color preferences between adults and infants. Because adults have more associations between colors and objects or places from life experiences, their preferences change as they get older. Culture Many cultural differences exist on perceived color personality, meaning, and preference. When deciding on brand and product logos, companies should take into account their target consumer, since cultural differences exist. A study looked at color preference in British and Chinese participants. seems to think that color can affect one's mood, but the effect also can depend on one's culture and what one's personal reflection may be. For example, someone from Japan may not associate red with anger, as people from the U.S. tend to do. Also, a person who likes the color brown may associate brown with happiness. However, Wollard does think that colors can make everyone feel the same, or close to the same, mood. Studies have shown people from the same region, regardless of ethnicity, will have the same color preferences. Common associations connecting colors to a particular emotion may also differ cross-culturally. However, only Poles related purple with both anger and jealousy while Germans linked jealousy with yellow. This highlights how the influence of different cultures can potentially change perceptions of color and its relationship to emotion. == Sports performance ==

The color red has been found to influence sports performance. During the 2004 Summer Olympics the competitors in boxing, taekwondo, freestyle wrestling, and Greco-Roman wrestling were randomly given blue or red uniforms. A later study found that those wearing red won 55% of all their matches which was a statistically significant increase greater than the expected 50%. The colors affected bouts where the competitors were closely matched in ability, where those wearing red won 60% of the matches, but not matches between more unevenly matched competitors. In post-war England, football teams wearing red uniforms have averaged higher league positions and have had proportionally more championship winners than teams using other colors. In cities with more than one team, the teams wearing red outperformed the teams wearing other colors. A study of the UEFA Euro 2004 found similar results. Another study found that those taking penalty kicks performed worst when the goalkeeper had a red uniform. More anecdotal is the historical dominance of the domestic honors by red-wearing teams such AFC Ajax, FC Bayern Munich, Liverpool F.C., and Manchester United F.C. Videos of taekwondo matches were manipulated in one study so that the red and blue colors of the protective gears were reversed. Both the original and the manipulated videos were shown to referees. The competitors wearing red were given higher scores despite the videos otherwise being identical. Not only can color influence the players themselves in sports, but it can also influence other people's perceptions of the players. For example, one study demonstrates the effects of wearing various colored boxer trunks on the referees perception of the boxers. The results of the study indicated that competitors who wore red and black-colored trunks appeared stronger, more aggressive, and more dominant to the referee observing the match. == Use in hospitals ==

At the turn of the 20th century, white was widely used in hospitals. In 1914, a surgeon in a San Francisco hospital, Harry Sherman, adopted green, "the complementary colour to hemoglobin" to avoid dazzle. This was adopted by a number of other American hospitals in the following decades. In 1916 Howard Kemp Prossor, a British art connoisseur, advanced a "colour cure" for shell shock. At around the same time, architect William Ludlow began to advocate pale pastel blues and greens in hospitals for therapeutic purposes and advising that "white is negative". In 1930, Dr. Charles Ireland of Guy's Hospital in London wrote Colour and Cancer, a book advocating the use of concentrated doses of colored light for treating cancer. The practice of using color in hospitals became widespread in the 1930s, particularly promoted by Faber Birren, who established himself as an "industrial color consultant" in 1934 and advised that an environment of soft colors, especially green, would be soothing for patients. Red is perceived as a strong and active color which may influence both the person wearing it and others perceiving it. An evolutionary psychology explanation is that red may signal health as opposed to anemic paleness, or indicate anger due to flushing instead of paleness due to fear. It has been argued that detecting flushing may have influenced the development of primate trichromate vision. Primate studies have found that some species evaluate rivals and possible mates depending on red color characteristics. Facial redness is associated with testosterone levels in humans, and male skin tends to be redder than female skin. == Gaming ==

Since color is such an important element in how people interpret their environment, color psychology can enhance the feeling of immersion in people that play video games. By using color psychology to cause immersion in players, players can have fewer errors playing video games in comparison to a game that does not utilize color psychology immersion. assessed the impact of avatar color on the gaming experience for educational games. The research compared two different color avatars; blue and red. They then measured the players using the avatars in terms of competence, immersion and flow. The study found that the players with the red avatar performed poorly compared to those with blue avatars. Another study on experienced players of first-person shooter games found that those assigned to wear red uniforms instead of blue won 55% of the matches. == See also ==