Colours

Colours are supposed to affect our emotions, yet I can’t help wondering just how much of all that is cultural. After all some of us believe white stands for purity and happiness, yet in some other cultures it is the colour of death.

It’s long been an area for ‘pop’ psychology. Not much real research has been done across ages and cultures, so everyone is entitled to an opinion backed by little other than what they have read and experienced, or been told.

Reading online (I was too lazy to dig out physical stuff on it) I was interested to find such differing interpretations as

Black: Sophistication, elegance, power, rebellion.

Black: Evil, sinister, mourning, death, darkness and mystery.

Purple: Wealth, royalty, sophistication, intelligence.

Purple: Dreams, purple stretch (things going well), Lent, religious repentance

I was recently told that someone’s “research” has proven that too much pink can make little girls angry and depressed. So there go all the ‘Barbie’ bedrooms. (For my part a wonderful idea).

I suspect that at this stage it must remain within the realms of pop psychology, great fun for speculation and decorating, but not really that much help anywhere else.

I have a ‘marie biscuit and milo’ home pale and rather wishy-washy, where my visitors bring the colour. I find too many colours for too long and I become stressed. Living for weeks at a stretch in hotels in the USA I ended up feeling very ‘ragged around the edges’ and would just sit quietly at home when I made it back to the paler place.

Other people draw vitality and energy from having VIBRANT colours around them.

So I wonder if it will ever be possible to identify exactly what, if any, effect colour has on us?