Psychological Properties of Color

Color is a very powerful and versatile beast. When utilized properly, color can convey emotions and responses far beyond words. I’ve always found the psychological traits of color an interesting subject. Below are some properties associated with some primary colors and some interesting international and historical significances.

Blue
Often considered a safe global color, blue represents peace, stability, unity, trust, security and technology. Because of this, blue is often used in business to reflect trust.

• Blue is often associated with immortality for the Chinese.
• In the Jewish faith blue is attributed to holiness.
• To protect themeselves against eveil, ancient Egyptian pharaohs wore blue robes.
• Today, Police and other public servants of today wear blue which began in ancient Rome.

Red
Red is the first color that the human eye responds to making it virtually unignorable. It is for this reason that we use red for emergency and directional signals. The color can stimulate all kinds of senses including warmth, hunger, aggravation and passion. We associate red with love, danger, desire, speed, strength and blood.

• Red is the color most commonly found in national flags.
• In China red symbolizes celebration and luck and is used in many cultural ceremonies.
• In India red is the color of purity.
• For the ancient Romans, a red flag was a signal for battle.

Green
Most-often cited (internationally) as a favorite color, green represents environment, health, good luck, youth, vigor, generosity, fertility and jealousy. Green as the color of nature is regarded as a healing color.

• Studies indicate green is not a good color choice for packaging in France or China.
• In ancient Greece, green symbolized victory.
• In some tropical countries green is associated with danger.
• In China, green hats mean a man's wife is cheating on him.

Purple
In ancient times, purple was regarded as an extremely noble color as it was very hard (and expensive) to produce. Today the exotic color represents royalty, spirituality, ceremony, mystery, wisdom and enlightenment.

• Purple robes are an emblem of authority and rank.
• Leonardo da Vinci believed that the power of meditation increases 10 times when done in a purple light, as in the purple light of stained glass.
• Purple in a child's room is said to help develop the imagination according to color theory.

Yellow
Yellow represents joy, happiness, idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, gold, spirituality and friendship. Within the animal kingdom, the combination of red or black with yellow is a highly visual warning to predators to be considered lethal.

• According to studies, most American's prefer yellows that are warmer in hue.
• In Asia yellow is sacred, and imperial.
• In India, yellow is the symbol for a merchant or farmer.

Black
The color black represents power, sophistication, formality, wealth, mystery, anonymity, and depth. Black, or the absence of light, is a versatile color as it can represent both highly positive or negative attributes depending on it's context.

• The ancient Egyptians and Romans used black for mourning, as do most Europeans and Americans today.
• Black is associated with sophistication and elegance.
• The ancient Egyptians believed that black cats had divine powers.

White
The color white represents purity, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, youth and winter. Due to white's representation of purity we tend to associate it with good as oposed to evil.

• A white flag is the universal symbol for truce.
• The ancient Greeks wore white to bed to ensure pleasant dreams.
• The ancient Persians believed all gods wore white.
• The Egyptian pharaohs wore white crowns.