Week 4 ~ How Colours Can Make Us Feel

Do you feel anxious in a yellow room? Does the colour blue make you feel calm and relaxed? Artists and designers have long understood how colour can affect mood, feeling and emotions. Colour can be a powerful communication tool and can be used to signal action, influence mood, and cause certain reactions. Certain colours have even been associated with increased blood pressure, increased metabolism, and eyestrain.

Your feelings about particular colours can be quite  personal and rooted in your own experience or culture, but some colour effects seem to be more universal.

Colours in the red area of the spectrum are known as warm colours and include red, orange and yellow. Warm colours can evoke feelings of warmth and comfort, as well as anger and hostility.

Colours on the blue side of the spectrum are known as cool colours and include blue, purple and green. These colours are often described as calming, but can also call to mind feelings of sadness or indifference.

Here are a few interesting examples of colour use:

• One study found warm-coloured placebo pills were reported as more effective than cool-coloured pills.
• Anecdotal evidence suggests installing blue-coloured streetlights can lead to reduced crime.
• The temperature of the environment might play a role in colour preference. People who are warm tend to list cool colours as their favourites, while people who are cold prefer warmer colours.
• Recently researchers discovered that the colour red causes people to react with greater speed and force, which might prove useful during athletic activities.
• One study looking at historical data found sports teams dressed in mostly black uniforms are more likely to receive penalties and that students were more likely to associate negative qualities with a player wearing a black uniform.

Article information summarized from Color Psychology: Does it Affect How You Feel?

From various sources (and personal experience) here are some of the ways colours affect us:

And here's a single sheet printout if you want to colour your own version: