Color Perception
is Individual

What is your favorite color? 
Do you know why?

Learning Objectives

1. What is your favorite color? 
   
2. Do you know why?
   
3. How many greens?

Color Perception is Individual

Every child has been asked, "What is your favorite color?" is their answer guided by parents, culture, wanting to be unique, associations with favorite people or toys? Color perception is a complicated topic.
Color studies can have inherent bias. For example, more people prefer white and silver cars over any other. Could it be that they have learned that they do not show dirt as much as black, red, or blue cars? Have they been told that white cars are easier to see, or that red cars get more speeding tickets, and is this because red car drivers like to go fast or they are easier to spot?
Each of us has unique color perceptions and preferences. Scientists have agreed on measurements for colors expressed in nanometers; however, each person has a personal relationship to color. Synesthesia, Color Blindness, fashion, age, and physiology of your eyes and brain all affect what each of us describes as color.

Color Preferences

In this web post about favorite colors, the author states that preferences are different for men and women.
http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/preferences.html

Color Associations in School Age Children

Pam Schiller, PhD, includes the following chart and ideas for using color to enhance learning and influence mood in her book, Start Smart: Building Brain Power in the Early Years, Revised Edition. [2]
​
Red

• Creates alertness and excitement.
• Encourages creativity.
• Increases appetite.
• May be disturbing to anxious individuals.

Blue

• Creates a sense of well-being.
• Sky blue is tranquilizing.
• Can lower temperature.
• Inhibits appetite.

Yellow

• Creates a positive feeling.
• Optimum color for maintaining attention.
• Encourages creativity.

Orange

• Increases alertness.

Green

• Creates calmness.

Purple

• Creates calmness.

Brown

• Promotes a sense of security and relaxation.
• Reduces fatigue.

Off-White

• Creates positive feelings.
• Helps maintain attention.

Pink Dining Rooms

There are many kinds of pink, bright Barbie pink, pale cotton candy pink, and the soft creamy color of peach ice cream, this is the color that is most flattering to faces, and in a dining room will encourage you relax and linger. Fast food restaurants are painted bright yellow and orange so that we won't stay long.

Green Receptors

Did you know that the human eye has more receptors for green than any other color? Doesn't this make sense since we have evolved to eat fresh foods and we need to distinguish between ripe and unripe?  Green is said to be relaxing; however, the fluorescent lime green on some fire engine trucks is certainly not calming. Perhaps it is the feeling we get in a forest, surrounded by the many tones of green in moss, ferns, leaves, and ripening fruits and cones. Breathing deeply in the forest is very relaxing, is it the color of the environment?  'Hospital green' is a pale washed out green that has become synonymous with institutional colors that we associate with feeling sick.  Is it the reminder of hospitals that make us feel this way? Large expanses of green lawn have been considered an emblem of wealth and luxury, is this deep rich fresh green calming to view out our windows and also raising our adrenaline on the football field?  What about 'Army Green' worn by soldiers to help them hide on the battlefield.

Migraine Headaches and Color

In a story told by the building’s lighting designer, Rogier van der Heide, http://www.rogiervanderheide.com/, the occupants of a European office building had color tunable lighting in each office and were encouraged to dial in their preferred color each day. One worker, when asked why they chose green light that morning, told him that it was because they had learned green light relieved their migraine headache.

Color of the Year by Pantone

What is the PANTONE Color of the Year?  Since 2000 Pantone has been publishing, on their website, a new color of the year based on global trends in design, fashion, publishing, and architecture. Designers and manufacturers use these color suggestions for new products and branding.  Visit their website to see current and past Colors of the Year.  https://www.pantone.com

---

Footnotes

1. Color in Your World  by Faber Birren, 1962 book, page 10
2. http://pamschiller.com/

Photo Credits

• Favorite color  - http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/preferences.html
  

Related Topics

Color Blindness, Synesthesia & Chromesthesia
Color Therapy, Migraine Headaches and Light, Color in Fashion