Cole Wagner LK 4 UweT 1102 Professor Thomas April 13, 2015 Emotional Effects of Exposure to Color Color, what is it? Where does it come from? What is so significant about color that makes it such a necessary part of life? Colors do many things including, adding details to scenery, stimulating your senses, they can even invoke emotions. Some might ask, how? In pe bi, wae? what ways ard colors used to invoke emotions. The whole concept of “color” comes from the discovery of where color comes from “made by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666. Newton discovered that when white/pure light passes through a prism it separates into many different sections, each of those sections being a different color than the next. He later discovered that each color comes from a single specific wavelength of light that cannot be separated any further. We were assigned to read The Book Thief for class, this novel is full of emotional scenes because it is set in @ very emotional time period, the Holocaust. As | was reading this novel | began to notice a ton of imagery words that were being used to describe the environment to set the tone of the story. Many of those words included the colors of the world outside. It made me begin to wonder, what kind of effects do colors have on a person’s emotions?I remember going in depth about color and what color was to start my art classes over the years. Obviously we would start with the obvious, the color wheel, reasons for the colors New ae being aligned the way they are. Then we would talk about where color comes from and what exactly it is. To demonstrate some of these ideas we would end up watch demonstrations done by researchers on regular bystanders to show the ideas we were learning about. Another idea we would study was how colors were not only there to add detail to the scene they also had specific meanings or interpretations. ‘One example of certain colors having a specific meaning is Pablo Picasso's Blue Period. All of Picasso's works during this time were all painting with only the color blue, and different shades of blue, Another attribute to the works done during this period is that they were all very sad and depressing pieces. It may seem like just a random color choice, but blue and sadiness/depression actually correlate. This is just one example of one color having a specific meaning/interpretation. With the idea in mind of specific colors having specific meanings associated with each cae: one, | decided to research more in depth about this idea to find more information on how colors can affect a person's state of mind. Most of my information came from psychology related works. | was looking for information about specific colors having certain observable effects on emotions. Physical effects of color on the human organism will result in psychological reactions. An John Otts explains, “Behind the psychological responses to color are more basic responses to specific wavelengths of radiant energy” (Light, Color and Environment). It’s obvious that aperson is more likely to feel cheerful on a sunny day compared to on a rainy day. Colors also ek owe have this effect, Red may cause someone to become more excited, and blue may cause a person to become down or calm (Light, Color, and Environment pg. 27). Studies on similar ideas continued to be conducted to gain more knowledge on the ead subject. A man named Felix Deutsch, a physician in the 1900s, did research on the effect of color on emotions. He states in his findings, “Every action of light has in its influence physical as |“ well as psychic components.” Another way to state it is that light energy affects a human’s body directly as well as through,the eye and brain (Birren pg, 46). Common observation shows that edi LS -7 the moods of me? are affected by the environment, by ugly scenes and beautiful scenes, by positive, sunny weather and gloomy, rainy weather. When placed in a bright, harmonious v setting, a majority of people will find their dispositions improved. For example, these people may be in a better spirit than they were before being placed in that setting oe eed 46). i vhve pllthel? le? wt Valder? lread an article entitled Effects of Color on emotions, to find information on the subjects for this article many studies were done to experiment with various colors to see if and how ‘emotions were affected by exposure to various colors. A test was done to compare the emotional effects of red/yellow exposure to the effects of blue/green exposure. The results of the test showed that exposure to red/yellow caused displeasure and arousal from the participants. Exposure to green/blue gave the participants pleasure and low arousal (Valdez pg. 396). The color blue was associated with “secure/comfortable” and “tender/soothing,” which imply pleasure and low arousal. The color orange was associated with emotions such as a “disturbing/distressed/upset,” which implied displeasure and high arousal (Valdez pg. 396).> -% ? di A rl gel A test was done to judge people's characters and what kind of personality. The goal of the test was to see what colors were chosen by the participants based on preference. The participants were asked to rank seventy-three different patches based on their preference. Just as the researcher had hypothesized, the most preferred color was blue. Blue is the most preferred color becaus: is a calming color, it is passive sensitive and unifying. On the oppo side of the spectrum orange-red was the least preferred color. These results are because red and orange are both threatening color hey are not appealing to the eye. The participants character was the assessed based on how he/she ranked each color. More studies were conducted along the way such as one where the participants were asked to tell which person they thought had more power, the person in the darker colored suit or the person in the lighter colored suit. The results showed that the participants chose the 0 person in the darker colored suit to have are (Valdez pg. 396). A similar test was done to see which would cause more aggressiveness in a hockey/football team, black or darker colored uniforms or nonblack/lighter colored uniforms. The results showed that the team wearing the darker colored uniforms not only looked more aggressive, they acted more aggressive (Valdez pg. 396). An article titled “Blue is Beautiful” appeared in the September 17, 1973 issue of Time magazine. Within the article was reference of the work of a man named Henner Ertel, director of an institute for rational psychology at Munich. A three year study was done to compare the effects of color on children pertaining to education and creativity. Children were placed in te different rooms various colors such agglight blue, yellow-green, and orange. The eI ‘y children placed in these rooms had a much higher IQ score than the children placed in rooms- painted with white, black and brown (Birren pg. 51). Play rooms that were also painted with b~ oh ey white, black or brown made the childreri duller.On, the other hand the rooms painted with more popular colors stimulated creativity and alertness in the children (Birren pg. 51). ‘When looking back at historical examples of how colors were used, there are many different ways color was used in everyday life. For example, in some ancient cultures like ancient Egypt and Chinese, color was used to heal. The idea of using colors medically became to who? be known as chromotherapy. For this treatment, each color had its own purpose: ¢ Red- used to stimulate the body and mind to increase circulation Yellow- stimulate the nerves and purify the body * Orange: used to heal the lungs and increase energy levels Blue- used to soothe illnesses and treat pain Indigo- thought to alleviate skin problems Ancient Chinese and Egyptian cultures are just two examples of how colors can be used. These $) beliefs may differ when examining other cultures beliefs however. Some interpretations of colors come from the general public, but those interpretations don’t necessarily mean they are correct. For example the general may believe the following ideas associated with specific colo! ° White- innocence and purity * — Orange- fiery and lust . Yellow-new life and new beginnings . Purple- wealth and royalty . Brown- poverty and earth * Aqua- coolness and water* Blacks mourning and death This may be the general public's ideas of color, but what kind of ideas would be associated with each color if you were to ask another person with a different cultural background {Cider Tost? In most cases if a to ask someone to describe the devil, they would most likely have an image of a red dude with a pitchfork, horns, and maybe fury goat legs. if a personality was to be placed with that image most would probably say that the Devils evil, unmerciful, and monstrous. We see the Devil with the color red because red in most cases is interpreted as bad or unpleasing. How would a person whose cultural background causes them to see red as passionate and sensual, react if red was associated with the Devil? That person definitely would see the Devil as being as evil, the color red wouldn’t match the image of the Devil (Luber Jodi). Now that we have seen examples of how there isn’t one 100% correct answer to the question “What kind of attributes are given to certain colors”,” it’s time to show some specific examples of certain colors having multiple attributes. It is believed that yellow is considered dual natured, which is when there are two contradictory attributes associated with a color. Yellow can be seen as a good thing, like sunshine or accomplishing something great. Yellow can also be interpreted as a bad thing, for example yellow is often associated with skin issues and iv bad hveigne. Obviously the first examole is more oleasant than the second. which is exacthey what being dual natured is. wan bel aie BA poupe ex ies A dey baths iy ey (iad,oe Birren. Faber. Color & Human Resnonse. New York, NY: Litton Fdueational Publishing Inc’ Works Cited