subject: Color - Does It Really Affect Your Mood? Part One: Red [print this page] Each color has inherent meaning and evokes a certain feeling when we see it, right? The research shows this is only partially correct. Yes, colors do evoke certain feelings within us but each color does not actually possess a meaning. All meanings assigned to colors are learned, and change from culture to culture. For example, according to Kenneth and Cherrie Fehrman in their book Color, The Secret Influence, blue humor in America denotes comedy that is risqu. Yet in Spain the same type of comedy is called green humor. In Japan its called pink humor and yellow humor in Hong Kong. Additionally, when you are blue in the United States you are depressed, in Germany you are drunk and in Finland you are just short on money.
In fact, our entire world is colorless. Color is a complete illusion! Yes, everything we see, touch, wear and eat has absolutely no color of its own. We only see color due to light. Each different color has a different wavelength, which causes us to see everything in different colors. Enough of the science of color, where did all of those learned meanings come from? In Western culture the basic meanings came from an elaborate, archaic language called Blazon. This was developed sometime around the mid-thirteenth century and was based on Norman French. It dealt with the terms and rules of heraldry. It is from Blazon that we have acquired our patriotic meanings for red as courage, white as purity and blue as loyalty. Think of all the flags of the nations within Western Culture that use this color combination!
It does not end with red, white and blue though. In Medieval society, color was linked to astronomy. Yellow was used to represent the sun, white the moon, red was for Mars, green was Mercury and blue was for Jupiter. These strong associations still exist in Europe today. By the time of King Henry VIII, in England, green had come to symbolize unfaithfulness. This came from the grass stains on a virgins clothing. Henry VIII was a busy guy!
But what meanings do we associate with color today? We take most of our color cues from our families, school, television, print media and from our friends. Overall though, these color signals all repeat the same color myths and biases we have been taught since birth. We derive most of our meanings for color from nature. For example, what symbols do you associate with the color red? Generally, red is linked to blood and fire. Consequently, red is thought to mean power and is charged with emotion. Red still has strong associations with courage as well as love. In China, red takes a slightly different meaning in that it means joy, happiness and good fortune. In fact, it is still the foremost color for bridal wear. On Chinese New Year, coins are given in lucky red envelopes to wish good luck.
Red is also one of the few colors whose meaning changes profoundly when mixed with white. When red changes to pink it becomes gentle and feminine. Interestingly, pink has its own dark side though. An experiment was done in 1979 on the effects of pink. A holding cell was painted pink, first at a U.S. Navel correctional center in Seattle, Washington and then later at the Santa Clara County jail in San Jose, California. Initially, when detainees were placed in their pink holding cells, they were transformed into a humorous and restful mood within 15 minutes. Yet, when left for longer periods their mood changed. After about 4 hours, prisoners became violent and went completely out of control to the extent of trying to hurt themselves and destroy their cells.
Animal studies further showed that exposure to pink light for longer periods caused them to become cannibalistic! When we layer this information over the fact that we often completely bathe little girls environments entirely in pink, interesting questions arise.
