19-08-2016 Trimester: 162 Course ID: PSY 2217 Course Title: Introduction to Psychology

2. Color & Color psychology
Color is, simply stated, broken down white light. This is a dissection of light at different
wavelengths and each wavelength is perceived as a separate color. Objects tend to
absorb or reflect these wavelengths, so when we see a yellow lemon, it is the yellow
wavelength that is being reflected while all others are being absorbed.
We feel color. How or what we feel about it varies from person to person. Some colors
give us a sense of serenity and calm; these usually lie within the blue side of the
spectrum-that consists of purple and green too, known as the cool side. Others induce
rage and make us uncomfortable, or signify passion; these lie within the red spectrum-
which includes orange and yellow, known as the warm side.
Color perception is subjective, and certain colors have a very universal significance.
This is coded into our reptilian brain, giving us that instinctive feeling of fire is being
dangerous and the beach being relaxing.
There is a reason why people prefer certain colors over others. This preference says
volumes about our personalities, because each color has an association with a reaction
our brain has when we internalize it.
Color stimulates our brain, and from the ancient times has proven to be useful
alternative psychotherapy.
Color psychology is the study of hues as a determinant of human behavior.
Color psychology is a well-known, yet less explored branch of the study of how our
brain perceives what it visualizes. As far as scientific research goes, there is not much
to work with. However, the impact that colors have on our brains is used to manipulate
our decision making by multiple facets of society.
Color psychology is a very important tool used by artists, interior decorators, and as a
marketing mechanism in many industries.

3. Color preference & relation between color and mood
Color has long been used to create feelings of coziness or spaciousness.
There is evidence that color
preference may depend on
ambient temperature. People
who are cold prefer warm
colors like red and yellow while
people who are hot prefer cool
colors like blue and green.
Some research has concluded
that women and men
respectively prefer "warm"
and "cool" colors.
A few studies have shown
that cultural background has
a strong influence on color
preference. These studies
have shown that people from
the same region regardless
of race will have the same color preferences. Also, one region may have different
preferences than another region (i.e., a different country or a different area of the same
country), regardless of race.

4. Children's preferences for colors they find to be
pleasant and comforting can be changed and can
vary, while adult color preference is usually non-
malleable.
Some studies find that color can affect mood.
However, these studies do not agree on precisely
which moods are brought out by which colors.
Light, color, and surroundings
Light and color can influence how people perceive the area around them. Different light
sources affect how the colors of walls and other objects are seen. Specific hues of
colors seen under natural sunlight may vary when seen under the light from an
incandescent (tungsten) light-bulb: lighter colors may appear to be more orange or
"brownish" and darker colors may appear even darker. Light and the color of an object
can 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 can appear to be shaped differently
from reality. Objects under a uniform light-source will promote better impression of
three-dimensional shape. The color of an object may affect whether or not it seems to
be in motion. In particular, the trajectories of objects under a light source whose
intensity varies with space are more difficult to determine than identical objects under a
uniform light source. This could possibly be interpreted as interference between motion
and color perception, both of which are more difficult under variable lighting.

5. General model
The general model of color psychology relies on six basic principles:
1) Color can carry a specific meaning.
2) Color meaning is either based in learned meaning or biologically innate meaning.
3) The perception of a color causes evaluation automatically by the person
perceiving.
4) The evaluation process forces color-motivated behavior.
5) Color usually exerts its influence automatically.
6) Color meaning and effect has to do with context as well.
Uses in marketing

6. 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 can 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 can
assign to color. Even though there are attempts to classify consumer response 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, race, 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 piece.
Research on the effects of color on product preference and marketing shows that
product color could affect consumer preference and hence purchasing culture. Most
results show that it is not a specific color that 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 on a product within 90 seconds
of interaction with that product and about 62%-90% of that judgment is based on color.
People often see the logo of a brand or company as a representation of that company.
Without prior experience to a logo, we begin to associate a brand with certain
characteristics based on the primary logo color.
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 and had to rate the

7. appropriateness of the color for each product. This study showed a pattern of logo color
appropriateness based on product function. 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. Companies
should decide what types of products to produce and then choose a logo color that is
connotative with their products' functions.
Company logos can portray meaning just through the use of color. Color affects
people's perceptions of a new or unknown company.

8. Psychological Properties of Colors
There are four psychological primary colors - red, blue, yellow and green. They relate
respectively to the body, the mind, the emotions and the essential balance between
these three. The psychological properties of the eleven basic colors are as follows:
RED: Physical
Positive: Physical courage, strength, warmth,
energy, basic survival, 'fight or flight',
stimulation, masculinity, excitement.
Negative: Defiance, aggression, visual impact,
strain.
Being the longest wavelength, red is a powerful color. Although not technically the most
visible, it has the property of appearing to be nearer than it is and therefore it grabs our
attention first. Hence its effectiveness in traffic lights the world over. Its effect is
physical; it stimulates us and raises the pulse rate, giving the impression that time is
passing faster than it is. It relates to the masculine principle and can activate the "fight
or flight" instinct. Red is strong, and very basic. Pure red is the simplest color, with no
subtlety. It is stimulating and lively, very friendly. At the same time, it can be perceived
as demanding and aggressive.
BLUE: Intellectual.
Positive: Intelligence, communication, trust,
efficiency, serenity, duty, logic, coolness,
reflection, calm.
Negative: Coldness, aloofness, lack of
emotion, unfriendliness.
Blue is the color of the mind and is essentially soothing; it affects us mentally, rather
than the physical reaction we have to red. Strong blues will stimulate clear thought and
lighter, soft blues will calm the mind and aid concentration. Consequently it is serene
and mentally calming. It is the color of clear communication. Blue objects do not appear

9. to be as close to us as red ones. Time and again in research, blue is the world's favorite
color. However, it can be perceived as cold, unemotional and unfriendly.
YELLOW: Emotional
Positive: Optimism, confidence, self-esteem,
extraversion, emotional strength, friendliness,
creativity.
Negative: Irrationality, fear, emotional fragility,
depression, anxiety, suicide.
The yellow wavelength is relatively long and
essentially stimulating. In this case the stimulus is
emotional; therefore yellow is the strongest color,
psychologically. The right yellow will lift our spirits and
our self-esteem; it is the color of confidence and optimism. Too much of it, or the wrong
tone in relation to the other tones in a color scheme, can cause self-esteem to plummet,
giving rise to fear and anxiety. Our "yellow streak" can surface.
GREEN: Balance
Positive: Harmony, balance,
refreshment, universal love, rest,
restoration, reassurance,
environmental awareness, equilibrium,
peace.
Negative: Boredom, stagnation,
blandness, enervation.
Green strikes the eye in such a way as to require no adjustment whatever and is,
therefore, restful. Being in the centre of the spectrum, it is the color of balance - a more
important concept than many people realize. When the world about us contains plenty
of green, this indicates the presence of water, and little danger of famine, so we are

10. reassured by green, on a primitive level. Negatively, it can indicate stagnation and,
incorrectly used, will be perceived as being too bland.
VIOLET: Spiritual
Positive: Spiritual awareness, containment,
vision, luxury, authenticity, truth, quality.
Negative: Introversion, decadence,
suppression, inferiority.
The shortest wavelength is violet, often
described as purple. It takes awareness to a
higher level of thought, even into the realms
of spiritual values. It is highly introversive and encourages deep contemplation, or
meditation. It has associations with royalty and usually communicates the finest
possible quality. Being the last visible wavelength before the ultra-violet ray, it has
associations with time and space and the cosmos. Excessive use of purple can bring
about too much introspection and the wrong tone of it communicates something cheap
and nasty, faster than any other color.
ORANGE:
Positive: Physical comfort, food, warmth, security,
sensuality, passion, abundance, fun.
Negative: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity.
Since it is a combination of red and yellow, orange is
stimulating and reaction to it is a combination of the
physical and the emotional. It focuses our minds on
issues of physical comfort - food, warmth, shelter etc. -
and sensuality. It is a 'fun' color. Negatively, it might focus on the exact opposite -
deprivation. This is particularly likely when warm orange is used with black. Equally, too
much orange suggests frivolity and a lack of serious intellectual values.

11. PINK:
Positive: Physical tranquility, nurture,
warmth, femininity, love, sexuality,
survival of the species.
Negative: Inhibition, emotional
claustrophobia, emasculation, physical
weakness.
Being a tint of red, pink also affects us physically, but it soothes, rather than stimulates.
(Interestingly, red is the only color that has an entirely separate name for its tints. Tints
of blue, green, yellow, etc. are simply called light blue, light green etc.) Pink is a
powerful color, psychologically. It represents the feminine principle, and survival of the
species; it is nurturing and physically soothing. Too much pink is physically draining and
can be somewhat emasculating.
GREY:
Positive: Psychological neutrality.
Negative: Lack of confidence,
dampness, depression,
hibernation, lack of energy.
Pure grey is the only color that has no direct psychological properties. It is, however,
quite suppressive. A virtual absence of color is depressing and when the world turns
grey we are instinctively conditioned to draw in and prepare for hibernation. Unless the
precise tone is right, grey has a dampening effect on other colors used with it. Heavy
use of grey usually indicates a lack of confidence and fear of exposure.
BLACK:
Positive: Sophistication, glamour,
security, emotional safety,
efficiency, substance.
Negative: Oppression, coldness, menace, heaviness.

12. Black is all colors, totally absorbed. The psychological implications of that are
considerable. It creates protective barriers, as it absorbs all the energy coming towards
you, and it enshrouds the personality. Black is essentially an absence of light, since no
wavelengths are reflected and it can, therefore be menacing; many people are afraid of
the dark. Positively, it communicates absolute clarity, with no fine nuances. It
communicates sophistication and uncompromising excellence and it works particularly
well with white. Black creates a perception of weight and seriousness.
WHITE:
Positive: Hygiene, sterility,
clarity, purity, cleanness,
simplicity, sophistication,
efficiency.
Negative: Sterility, coldness,
barriers, unfriendliness, elitism.
Just as black is total absorption, so white is total reflection. In effect, it reflects the full
force of the spectrum into our eyes. Thus it also creates barriers, but differently from
black, and it is often a strain to look at. It communicates, "Touch me not!" White is purity
and, like black, uncompromising; it is clean, hygienic, and sterile. The concept of sterility
can also be negative. Visually, white gives a heightened perception of space. The
negative effect of white on warm colors is to make them look and feel garish.
BROWN:
Positive: Seriousness, warmth, Nature,
earthiness, reliability, support.
Negative: Lack of humor, heaviness, lack
of sophistication.
Brown usually consists of red and yellow,
with a large percentage of black.
Consequently, it has much of the same seriousness as black, but is warmer and softer.

13. It has elements of the red and yellow properties. Brown has associations with the earth
and the natural world. It is a solid, reliable color and most people find it quietly
supportive - more positively than the ever-popular black, which is suppressive, rather
than supportive.
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 can 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 people like to
accent with a highly contrasting color.
Color name
Although different colors can be perceived in different ways, the name of those colors
matters as well. Many products and companies focus on producing a wide range of
product colors to attract the largest population of consumers. But, color name, not only
the actual color, can actually attract or repel buyers as well. When asked to rate either
color swatches or products with generic color names, such as brown, or fancy color
names, such as mocha, participants rated items with fancy names as significantly more
likable than items with generic names. In fact the same paint color swatch with two
different names produced different rating levels. The same effect was found when
participants rated the pleasantness of towels with fancy and generic names. This shows
a greater favorability for fancy names compared to generic names for exactly the same
colors.
Fancy names are not only liked more, but cause the product to be liked more, hence
increasing purchasing intent. Jelly beans with atypical color names, such
as razzmatazz, were more likely to be chosen than jelly beans with typical names such
as lemon yellow. This could be due to greater interest in the atypical names and

14. willingness to figure out why that name was given. Purchasing intent of custom
sweatshirts from an online provider also showed
preferences for atypical names. Participants were asked to
imagine buying sweatshirts and were provided with a
variety of color options, some typical, some atypical. Colors
that were atypical were selected more than colors that were
typical, showing a preference to purchase items with
atypical color names. Those who chose atypical colors
were also more content with their choice than those who chose typical color sweatshirts.
Attracting attention
Color is used as a means to attract consumer attention to a product that then influences
buying behavior. Consumers use color to identify for known brands or search for new
alternatives. Variety seekers look for non-typical colors when selecting new brands. And
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.
Participants were shown the same product in four different colors and brands. The
results showed that people picked packages based on colors that attracted their
voluntary and involuntary attention. Associations made with that color such as 'green fits
menthol', also affected their decision. Based on these findings implications can be made
on the best color choices for packages. New companies or new products could consider
using dissimilar colors to attract attention to the brand; however, off brand companies
could consider using similar colors to the leading brand to emphasize product similarity.
If a company is changing the look of a product, but keeping the product the same, they
consider keeping the same color scheme since people use color to identify and search
for brands.
Attention is captured subconsciously before people can consciously attend to
something. Research looking at electroencephalography (EEGs) while people made
decisions on color preference found brain activation when a favorite color is present
before the participants consciously focused on it. When looking a various colors on a

15. screen people focus on their favorite color, or the color stands out more, before they
purposefully turn their attention to it. This implies that products can capture someone's
attention based on color, before the person willingly looks at the product.
Store and display color
Color is not only used in products to attract attention, but also in window displays and
stores. When people 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 people 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
were patrons could easily walk into a store that attracts their attention without previous
planning.
Other research has confirmed that store color, and not just the product, influences
buying behavior. When people are exposed to different store color scenarios and then
surveyed on intended buying behavior store color, among various other factors, seems
important for purchasing intentions. Particularly 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 actually interact.
Lighting color could have a strong effect on perceived experience in stores and other
situation. For example, time seems to pass more slowly under red lights and time
seems to pass quickly under blue light.
Color psychology and associations are an interesting part of the complex working
system of our brain, yet with so many scientific questions about it still left unanswered ,
and differences in cultural attachments to colors, it can only be utilized through
observation and experience of how color has influenced brains over the years.