How colours influence emotions and behaviour

Humans have always been receptive to visual forms of communication. The oldest known example of representational art goes back an amazing 51,000 years, and non-representational art dates back even further. Even in times when people had vastly reduced scientific knowledge and fewer resources available to them, they still created visual content which they ascribed meaning to, and colours were no exception to this rule. In this article we’ll be looking at how colour associations are similar and different across cultures and thinking about how we can apply colour to our own lives.

The Ancient Egyptians are often described as being the first culture to give practical applications to different colours and believed that shining light through differently-coloured crystals would help to cure ailments, while ancient cultures in Greece, India and China also took an interest in studying colour. Today, global scientific knowledge has broadened and yet even in twenty-first century times we can see that colour is a key component in everything from marketing to interior design choices, underscoring the notion that colours continue to hit us on an emotional level. Research into consumer decision-making indicates that 90% of our initial product assessments are based on colour.

Most of us instinctively associate colours with particular feelings and this can be seen in everything from sign writing to public architecture to street lighting. Over and above this, different colours have been linked to different physiological responses, indicating that they may have the potential to impact not only on our mind but on our body. For example, the colour red is associated with increased heart rate and faster response times, but also with poorer concentration. Blue, which is typically seen as being a calming colour, is associated with reduced blood pressure, while green is believed to have a pain-reducing effect.

All of these associations appear to have real-world applications, with the colour red commonly being associated with alarm buttons and warning signs, while blue is associated with law and order, as seen in the United Nations branding and the blue-coloured uniforms worn by law enforcement officers in many countries. Green, meanwhile, is commonly used in hospitals and in many European countries it is also used on pharmacy signs.

Colour also plays an important role in language and conceptualisation. Many cultures use colour-related idioms as a shorthand to describe feelings, such as “feeling blue” or “seeing red” in English, which respectively describe sadness and anger. In many cases these can be broadly similar between languages, with both French and Spanish using the concept of spending a “white night” to refer to a sleepless night (“passer une nuit blanche” and “pasar la noche en blanco” respectively). In other cases, different cultures can use a similar expression but with different colours, as seen in the fact that French talks about being “green with anger” or “vert de rage”, rather than “red” as in English. Yet still the link between colour and emotion prevails.

Not all cultures have the same meanings associated with colours. For example, the colour white is typically associated with clarity and simplicity in Western cultures yet is often associated with death and mourning in Eastern cultures, while in much of the Western world the colour of mourning is black. Some cultures link the colour green to fertility, while others associate it with sickness, and while the colour red is famously associated with good fortune in China and some other Asian cultures, it doesn’t necessarily have this connotation in other parts of the world.

Despite this, there are certain connotations that tend to be fairly widely held across most cultures. Starting from the warmer end of the spectrum, the colour red has a wide range of associations from excitement to passion to anger, while orange is often perceived to have mood-boosting benefits and to inspire creativity. Yellow, in turn, is linked to improved productivity and focus.

Moving through the spectrum, the colour green is considered to have a restful and calming effect, while blue is associated with qualities such as professionalism and improved cognitive performance. Regal purple is often associated with calmness and spirituality, while black, which is technically the absence of colour, is often linked with sophistication yet also linked to mourning, at least in Western cultures.

Interior designers typically advise using bright colours in kitchens, dining areas, hallways and any other places with a focus on movement and activity, while choosing darker or more neutral colours for working and sleeping environments in order to create a more restful and focused environment. It’s worth keeping in mind that interior designers often advocate using either the 70/20/10 rule or the 60/30/10 rule, each of which involve painting and decorating the majority of a space with a neutral colour while using more eye-catching colours or textures on certain areas to create harmony and balance. In clothing terms, this could mean using a brightly-coloured accessory against a more neutral overall palette.

Depending on your living and working situation, you might not have very much freedom to make significant changes to your home environment or working space, but even making small and easily reversible changes such updating the desktop background on your computer or changing your phone’s lock screen can give you a bit of a boost. Mood lighting can also be a useful way of subtly introducing different colours into your home or office environment, as is choosing colourful accessories and plants, and if your work or studies involve writing things down then using brightly coloured ink or sticky notes can help energise your environment too.

We hope you’ve found the article interesting but we’d like to know if you perceive colours differently, so please do leave your thoughts in the comments, as well as any tips on how to introduce colourful elements into your everyday life.

Keep it colourful, and see you again for next month’s updates!