Color your World

Insights on how color impacts emotions

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In different cultures, ideas vary on what colors mean. Much of the science has not yet been conclusive, and a lot of information about color and mood is subjective and intuitive. In the West, orange is believed to make you happy, while red increases your appetite. Warm colors can make you feel, well, warm and cozy, while cool colors such as blue and lavender seem to have a calming affect. Here are a few things we do know about how color can affect wellbeing:

RED: Attraction or Jealousy
Research shows that men tend to find a woman wearing red to be more sexually desirable than a woman wearing another color. While a man may find a woman in red sexy, another woman is likely to perceive her as a threat. A recent study found that women perceive other women as both sexually receptive and more likely to cheat if they’re wearing red. The same study found that women were more likely to keep a closer eye on their romantic partners while around a woman wearing red rather than green.

GREEN: Stress Releases
Spending time outside, in nature, has been found to be an effective way to relieve stress. A recent study suggests that looking at th
e color green may have something to do with that.

BLUE: Soothing
Considering that blue is one of the first colors humans needed to be comfortable with, it’s surprising that we use the word
“blue” to describe feeling sad or depressed. It’s even more ironic given that, according to studies, when photoreceptors in the eye detect blue light, they send messages to parts of the brain that control alertness, hormones, sleep and other functions.

Color life with your favorite hues
Everyone can tell you what their favorite color is, or that they love so many colors it’s hard for them to choose, or that they really can’t stand a certain hue. Color preferences arise from a number of sources, starting with cultural influences. Yellow is one of the least popular colors in the Western world, while in China it’s profoundly meaningful.

colors, emotions, hues