What’s Color Psychology?

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Color psychology studies how colors affect people’s moods, behavior, and feelings. It is mainly used in interior decoration and marketing. Different colors have different meanings in different cultures, and cultural context must be considered. Colors like black, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple have various positive and negative associations.

Color psychology is the study of the effect that colors have on people’s moods, behavior and feelings. Color psychology is a new field of psychology, the science of which is not widely accepted by the mainstream. Its use is mainly found in interior decoration and marketing. Individual colors evoke negative or positive feelings which are used to promote products or create the desired atmosphere within a home or business.

It is important to note that although some ancient civilizations believed that color was able to influence people, the first modern scientific research into the psychology of color took place in the West. Color doesn’t exist in a vacuum and different colors have different meanings to different cultures. For example, the color green is associated with nature and wealth, while in Muslim countries green is associated with Islam. When practicing color psychology, cultural context must be considered.

Black is the color of power and authority, and is often associated with mystery, silence and intelligence. It is also usually associated with evil and death. Regardless of the connotation used, black should inspire strong emotions. White is the color of purity, innocence and cleanliness. If too much white is used, it can foster feelings of isolation. Advertisers and decorators use white sparingly to inspire peaceful feelings in people.

Red is responsible for increasing a person’s heart rate and increasing adrenaline production in the body because it is such an extreme color. Red is the color of love, fire, energy, passion, anger. Red is used to draw attention to something because the eye will naturally look at red first. Orange is the color associated with all things happy, fun, and flamboyant. Color is used to inspire confidence, warmth and happiness and has no negative connotations.

Similar to orange, yellow inspires feelings of happiness because the color is associated with sunshine and optimism. Serotonin levels rise in the brain after a person sees yellow. However, too much yellow has been shown to be overpowering, and some shades of yellow can cause feelings of cowardice. In color psychology, green has multiple meanings, both positive and negative. On the positive side, green is the color of wealth, money, growth, nature, peace and can have a calming effect on people. Negative associations of green include envy and disease.

The color blue evokes thoughts of the sky and the ocean, which are calm and peaceful. Marketers and decorators use a good amount of blue for its tranquil properties and also darker shades of blue, which show a sense of loyalty. Purples have a reputation for stimulating creativity, imagination, spirituality and compassion. Shades of purple are also used to counteract emotional shock and disturbance and to be symbols of royalty and sophistication.




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