The Theory Behind Color Psychology And It's Significance

By Author: Heather Protz
Total Articles: 46
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Why do some people always wear drab colored clothes to work? Why do some find the blue, cloudless sky comforting? Why nearly all hospitals are painted white? Colors mean more than just visual perception or plainly a factor that indicates the resolution of your Satellite TV. They are psychologically related to the human mind and play upon our feelings and thoughts. The best example for this would be the winter season. Many psychologists say that the dull, gloomy black and white image that winter represents induces a small depression in people’s mind or is one of the causes for seasonal depression.
What are colors?
Why do colors affect a large part of our lives apart from the visual point of view? To know this let’s take a look on what colors are and how we perceive them. Colors are infinite elements. There’s a color in this universe of every plausible shade or taint you can think of. Colors are not only for aesthetic uses. In reality, colors are nothing but light. Theoretically, colors are the way our brain perceives electromagnetic radiations of a wavelength between 350 and 750 nanometer, by our eyes. Technically, ...
... colors are the electromagnetic radiations emitted by objects when light fall on them.
There are three primary colors. All the other colors are derived from these primary colors by either adding or subtracting. Some of you may think that these primary colors are Red, Yellow and Blue. You are right, to an extent. These are the primary colors according to the classic theory of light, but looking from a digital insight, the primary colors are Red, Green and Blue. This means that you’re computer screen’s resolution is decided upon these three colors.
How do colors affect us mentally?
There is a vast difference between color psychology and color symbolism. Color symbolism is something to do with the cultures that we grew up in. For example, English women prefer to dress in muted shades. Probably to suit the climate. Hindus consider the color red as holy. In other cultures, the same is used to indicate war and death.
Color psychology is entirely different. It deals with the affect of colors in our minds. A lot of us are turned off by the sickly green color. We wouldn’t dare buy a car or paint your walls in that color. Yet another lot of us find mild yellow or blue appealing. How does it work? It’s simple, the colors we perceive are the electromagnetic radiations from different objects that our brain receives when light falls on them. These electromagnetic radiations predominantly depend upon the atomic and molecular arrangement of these objects. So when are brain receives and perceives these signals, it is a form of understanding the structure of an object. Our moods are alternated when these signals hit the hypothalamus, the organ that controls our hormones.
What do they mean?
Favoritisms on different colors are not always made by culture, gender or age. It is not the color that matters individually but rather in the environment that it is present it. The color gray would look good on a suit but not in the sky. Arrays of bright hues of yellow red and pink flowers make us feel pleasant and lively, but you wouldn’t want that on your coat. We prefer to buy HD TV sets and watch our favorite programs on Satellite TV Providers, just for the sake of detail in color and clarity. So it’s not the color in itself that matters, but the way it’s harmonized with other colors. But an individual’s choice of colors is an important indicator of his/her personality. Black or darker shades of Blue for example, indicate aloofness while as yellow and orange could indicate a vibrant, friendly personality

Heather is a blogger, a pro in the field of hard-core gaming and participates actively in many gaming forums. She is interested in computer programming, website developing, and watching programs on her TV connected to Satellite TV Providers