By Sabrina Espinoza
In everyday life, you’ve probably noticed how company logos tend to have a distinct color that almost reflects their branding. For example, the deep green shade of Sprouts and Whole Foods conveys the two companies’ focus on health and wellness. Fast food places, such as McDonalds and Burger King, tend to adopt eye-catching shades such as bright yellows and reds. American Express and Chase sport a blue logo, a color often considered trustworthy.
The way companies use color to emphasize their personality and purpose connects to a concept called color psychology, which is the study of how colors can influence our thoughts, emotions, and perspectives.
The field is continuously expanding as more research is done and finds uses in things like marketing, art/design, and therapy. However, there’s been criticism that color psychology is lacking in true scientific evidence and that it’s mostly subjective, since people can be influenced by personal and cultural elements.
While opinions on the accuracy of color psychology can be divided, the common associations of specific colors can still be helpful in exploring the potential effects of color.
The General Meanings Connected With Colors
Warmer colors are thought to elicit feelings of comfort, warmth, anger and even hostility. Specifically, this category includes:
Red (primary color):
- Danger
- Power
- Confidence
- Love
- Intensity
Orange (yellow & red):
- Rejuvenation
- Enthusiasm
- Excitement
- Energy
- Stimulation
Yellow (blue & green):
- Happiness
- Energy
- Positivity
- Loyalty
- Innovation
Pink (red & white):
- Love
- Youth
- Gentleness
- Innocence
- Sweetness
Pink is a bit complicated due to it being less intense than the other colors, but because its base is red, we can tentatively put it into the warm color category.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have cooler colors, which are believed to create feelings of calm, tranquility, melancholy, and indifference. This category includes:
Blue (primary color):
- Calmness
- Compassion
- Sincerity
- Wisdom
- Coldness
Green (primary color):
- Nature
- Health
- Growth
- Harmony
- Envy
Purple (blue & red):
- Royalty
- Dignity
- Mystery
- Spirituality
- Wisdom
Finally, the colors listed here are ones that seem like a type of their own:
White
- Purity
- New Beginnings
- Cleanliness
- Innocence
- Perfection
Black
- Mystery
- Elegance
- Mourning
- Formality
- Power
Brown
- Seriousness
- Stability
- Wisdom
- Security
- Comfort
How Color Psychology Can Be Used in Real Life
Color psychology has a notable place in marketing/branding, as well as art therapy. However, regarding marketing, choosing colors for a company’s logo could be more complex than simply relying on the common meanings of colors.
Color can be significant in influencing people’s perception of a company, with 90% of snap judgments made on products being based on the color itself, but it has been found that it’s more important for a brand to choose colors that reflect the personality they want to portray rather than rely only on “stereotypical” meanings of colors.
Essentially, context matters: for example, green can connect to different meanings depending on the brand’s intent, such as Hello Fresh’s green emphasizing the health aspect but Animal Planet’s green emphasizing the environmental, nature aspect.
Furthermore, according to Psychology Today, studies have shown our brains prefer recognizable brands. This makes color very important for a brand’s logo, as it can help draw attention to a brand if their logo colors are different from competitors or if the colors are a unique combination.
Giving colored products striking names can benefit brands selling things like makeup and paint too. In one study, when participants were tasked with evaluating products with different color names, “fancier” and more creative names were often preferred. For example, even when researchers showed subjects the same color, “mocha” was more preferred than “brown”. Again, these two shades were the exact same!
Additional research showed that people preferred more elaborate and descriptive paint color names, rating them as more pleasing to look at than the shades with more simple names.
Besides being utilized in marketing, color psychology has a related field in therapy called chromotherapy, which involves the use of visible light. Though viewed by some scientists as pseudoscience, chromotherapy continues to be used today as an alternative treatment. The uses of some colors are listed below:
- Red: used to stimulate the body and mind, or increase circulation.
- Yellow: used to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.
- Orange: used to heal the lungs and increase energy.
- Blue: used to soothe illnesses and treat pain.
- Indigo: used to treat skin issues.
Similarly, colors can be used in art therapy (a form of therapy where unrestricted self-expression is encouraged from participants) to connect with someone’s emotions or provide a glimpse into their inner state.
The Science of Color Psychology
The exploration of color’s influence on us mentally and physically is still happening today, but many studies have been done to help frame color psychology in a more scientific light. In fact, two fascinating ones have been done regarding color’s impact on our perception and performance.
The first study, involving the analysis of historical data on sports teams and the way the players were dressed, found that the students in the sample group associated more negative qualities with players dressed in black uniforms.
Given how black can sometimes be perceived as related to negative concepts such as mourning and the unknown, the observation suggests our inner feelings about certain colors can expand to objects and people sporting that color. This might even be done subconsciously, like a bias.
Another study exposed 71 US college students to the color red, green, or black before a five-minute exam. Interestingly, the students exposed to red ended up scoring 20% lower than students exposed to green or black (participant numbers were used as the colors).
Similar to the previously mentioned study with the black uniformed players, red being associated with errors and low grades by some students could’ve negatively influenced them internally. Red is also thought to increase respiration rates and blood pressure, so it’s possible some students even felt physically stressed, hindering their performance.
While color psychology studies like these aren’t 100% perfect, they show that the field isn’t entirely based on ungrounded assumptions. Evidently, researchers are making genuine efforts to organize studies of color’s effects on us in an experimental manner.
The Subjectivity of Color Psychology
Of course, our perception of color is still dependent on many subjective factors, such as personality, experiences/memories, and culture. The way we view a certain color might be entirely different from someone else, such as one person disliking wearing black because they view the color as dreary and another person loving the color because of its minimalistic feel.
In addition, culture exerts a notable influence. One difference can be seen with the color white: in Western societies, brides wear white, but in areas like South Asia, widows wear white. Likewise, Westerners tend to see white as symbolizing innocence and purity while Easterners see the color as representing mourning. These cultural associations can affect someone’s view of a color as they grow up in their communities.
Overall, it’s difficult to apply universal meanings to colors (ex. Red = excitement & Blue = calm) due to all these subjective elements. Could 8 billion people really agree on the exact, single meaning of a specific color?
Color Psychology Is a Wonderful Blend of Both
Color psychology is a controversial concept. However, its mix of subjective factors and continuing research studies should be embraced. If anything, the field can be an interesting exploration into personal and cultural influence, along with the ways color can be used in things like design, art, and branding.
At the end of the day, the colors you choose to personally use for your clothing, living space, car, artworks, etc. are yours to choose alone! It really just takes some thinking about how certain colors make you feel and which ones you’re drawn to.
Still, a little color psychology research doesn’t hurt!
