Jessica E
Psychology

Deciding what colors to use when painting a house can often be difficult, but why do people choose some colors over others? Colors are the most underutilized resource in the world of psychology. They can determine a person’s mood and personality. Colors say a great deal about who we are and what we are like. There are psychological disorders dealing with the ideas of colors and a large amount of studies have been done proving that people pick certain colors because of their moods and general dispositions. This can be proven even by the fact that we have common sayings like “green with envy” or “seeing red” or even “feeling blue”. Colors also can cause us to feel certain things and we don’t have much say because it is a subconscious thing that is programmed into us.
Color psychology is something that many people are interested in. This is why many studies have been done so people can learn more about it. One study was done by Peter Whorwell of the University Hospital South Manchester. He and his colleagues picked the colors orange, green, purple, blue, red, yellow, pink and brown and split them each into four shades, then mixed shades of black, white and gray to create a wider array. They used 323 adults of which 110 were anxious and 108 suffered from depression. They placed the color wheel in front of them and required that they select the color that they felt caught their eye, and pick their favorite color. Lastly, they were asked to pick the color that best fit their day-to-day mood. This is where things get interesting. The majority of people found Blue 28 (shown below) to be their favorite color but the people suffering from depression and anxiety chose Blue 27, which is a bit darker. This shows that the shade of the color is very important in finding out someone’s mood.
Light blue is common but dark blue means you could be upset. Yellow 14 was voted as most likely to catch the eye. For the choices in moods, the color choices were very different. Only around thirty-nine percent of people said that their mood could be described with color. Yellow 14 was once again the dominant choice among the group. Around thirty percent of people who had anxiety chose shades of gray and likely enough, so did many depressed volunteers. This study makes it very obvious that this color wheel could be considered a valuable tool for psychologists working with patients who have trouble communicating verbally.
Corporations often use color psychology as a means of advertising. They know that colors can affect how you see their product. For example, many restaurants use the color red. Why? Because red is the color that will catch your eye. It raises heart rate and breathing rate and actually causes you to feel hungry. Makeup companies often use red because red is associated with passion so it is used to make women believe that they will be more sexually attractive with the product. Green portrays health and tranquility and that is why green check marks are so often used to depict the things that certain medicines can do. Green also represents money so companies usually use green in their commercials showing things that can save money or help you make money. Companies use blue to portray luxury items because is is associated with intellect, formality, and elegance. It is used in ads for navy blue suits, blue luxury cars and office rooms. It is not used in food advertising because it is proven to suppress the appetite. White, because it makes