Kirdie Pañebe

Colors and its Effect on People “Color is a power which directly influences the soul.” In the words of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, he firmly believes that color has a heavy impact on how people would behave and have a long lasting effect on them. No matter what culture or ethnicity, people have always maintained that colors are an integral part of life and have drawn inspiration from it numerous times. Regardless of one might say, it is undeniable that colors will have an effect on our decisions, emotions, and even productivity. People cannot be influenced by colors, at least directly. This can be observed in the subtlest of ways when a person is confronted with a situation and has to rely on non-verbal cues. When people are exposed to strong and vibrant colors like red and orange, often their decisions become hasty and towards a bold choice but when a calmer color is present like blue or green, their choice lean towards a safer one and on a calmer behavior. Though culture and experiences can sway these perceptions of certain colors, some can be universally defined to be tied to certain parts of our life like how green is similar to nature and red or orange is tied to fire. Some businesses take advantage of these association with certain colors to play in their own strategies on brand identity and sales conversion. Brands that deal with organic products and strong ties to the environment often use green to signify that they are on the side of nature while fast food chains and certain shopping malls play into the territory of red and orange to take advantage of people’s association to brighter colors to promote sales and quick purchases. Car companies and shoe brands often use the hues of gray and/or black as these promote balance, neutrality, and calmness while big and technological companies employ the color blue for it stands for trust, dependability, and strength. During interviews or when asking for funding, wearing a darker hue of green may increase a person’s chance of getting that job or that loan as darker green is related to money and finance. These color associations are the prime example that though people cannot be directly controlled by colors they see, it can sway them to other choices. Moods are also affected by colors but as the same as the above, it can only be to a certain extent of association. While colors of decision making pushes people to a choice, feelings and emotions go into a broader and long-term effect. When a person is mourning, almost always the color that comes into mind would be black to signify death with exception to other cultures and when people celebrate birth, it can be pink or blue depending on views on gender. On one hand, bright colors may influence people to harbor strong emotions such as love, anger, and passion and on the other hand colder or calmer colors may suggest an alignment to serenity, aloofness, and harmony. While some are influenced by the colors they are exposed to, some have a firm stand on the colors they associate emotions to. Culture, race, and even sexual orientation come into play on this aspect as some research point to color preferences that are prevalent to straight people are already ingrained on them compared to their non-binary counterparts. For example, straight males would see red outfits worn by women emanate attractiveness while homosexual males would not exhibit the same behavior. In extreme examples, these colors are even used to profile people based on their color preference to their matching personality. While these can be observed on people, there are no specific studies that tie these emotions to their corresponding colors as evidence is still coincidental at best. On the topic of behaviors displayed as influenced by color, perhaps the most noticeable would be how someone performs certain tasks when exposed to certain colors in varying periods of time. There is a reason why red ink is used when corrections on test papers are used or why work safety warnings are always colored yellow. This is due to people’s perception of these colors and their exposure to it for a certain period of time. A student may perform below the expected on a test when briefly exposed to the color red while those exposed to colors black or green perform at least a quarter better. On longer exposures, a person will subconsciously refer to certain colors as colors of warning, halting, and even a go signal; a main influence to this would be the colors of changing traffic lights and various road signs. In the field of video games, color also plays a vital role as it prompts their senses especially in immersive environments and directly influences how well they would play. Color may condition people to behave in a certain way of how they do things but it will all boil down to how it was presented to them and how long they were exposed to it. The science to back up these claims have been around for quite some time as the earliest evidence of color dates back to the 17th century when Isaac Newton broke down light to different hues of color. However, the behavioral associations towards color only came about when Carl Jung, widely credited as the pioneer of Color Psychology, studied the field of color symbolism and connected it to how a human would behave. He may not have brought the field of Color Psychology to its peak even in his time but his groundwork laid the foundations on how it is studied in the present day. Currently, this field has had numerous claims on direct influence of color towards human behavior but then more scientific research is needed to substantiate these claims as none have presented direct links. All in all, it is conclusive that the effect of colors on people can be observed but not completely as effective as some people might claim. It may vary from person to person but the commonality of its effects can be subtly noticed from deciding where to dine whenever outside or what to feel exactly when presented with a certain color palette, and even the rate of how a person performs at work or school.