What if I like Red and you like Blue?

Perceiving colors could serve a lot of important things to us, yet most of the time we take them for granted. Colors could be defined as “product of a light energy in different wavelengths, reflected by objects” (Rosenbloom, 2006, p.230). Colors could also serve as everyday signals for our survival (Goldstein, 2010). But the most obvious purpose of color is bring beauty or aesthetics to our world. Perceiving colors also induces specific feelings; it also aids us in expressing our moods and emotions. These functions may actually be the reason why we have favorite or preferred colors.

According to Rosenbloom (2006), color preference is actually one of the basic elements in art and art therapy. For instance, a study by Gregoryan, Azaryan, DeMaria, and McDonald (1996; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006) suggested that posttraumatic children used black, red, and white colors during their first therapeutic session. Also, colors black and brown tended to be selected by depressed patients (Nolan, Dai, and Stanley, 1995; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006). The basic premise held and provided by these researches is that specific colors produce and/or are associated with certain moods and emotions just as mention earlier. In connection to this, Rosenbloom (2006) categorizes colors into two and named them as “hot” and “cold” colors.

Hot colors include those that have long wavelengths; specifically these colors are yellow, red, orange, yellow-orange, red-orange, and red-violet. These colors are called “hot” because they arouse, stimulate, excite, attract, and at the same time irritate the receiver or observers of these colors.

Outstanding from these colors is red; Luscher and Scott (1971; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006) described this color as representing an energy-expanding physiological condition, speeding up the pulse, raising the blood pressure, and increasing the respiration rate— an expression of vital force. Furthermore, it also has the meaning of desire, appetite, and craving. Red also represents the urge to achieve results, win success; the impulse towards struggle, sex, sport, and competition. (Luscher & Scott, 1971; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006).

Another category is called the “cold” colors (Rosenbloom, 2006). These colors include the shorter wavelengths, namely violet, blue, green, blue-violet, blue-green, and green-yellow. These colors are calming, cooling, retreating, and also shrinking.

If red is the most notable color in the hot color category, for the cold colors, it is blue. Luscher and Scott (1971) also described the effects of perceiving this color. Unlike the stimulating effects of color red, they said that blue has a pacifying effect on the central nervous system— blood pressure, pulse, and respiration rate are all decreased or reduced. Thus, blue may represent loyalty and harmony.

Black, white, and grays are achromatic colors, and so were not included to any of these categories.

Colors and color preference had also been associated with some mental disorders such as schizophrenia (i.e. Cernovsky & Fernando, 1988; cited in Rosenbloom, 2006) and with personality traits (Eysenck, 1941; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006). One of the hypotheses of Rosenbloom’s study (2006) is that people who are highly sensation seeking— meaning those who are seeking varied, complex, novel, and intense sensations and experiences— would prefer to use “hot” colors in the experiment wherein participants are asked to color the cloth of a human picture. Sensation seeking was further explained by referring it to the optimal level of arousal and stimulation, regulated by catecholamine, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Rosenbloom also hypothesized that sensation seekers would tend to use more colors in the experiment; to add to this, he also looked at the gender differences.

In the experiment, 30 male and 30 female were asked to color a drawn human figure’s clothes by using paints, unaware of the real purpose of the study. After this color-the-drawing task, where they were also observed by the researcher, each participant had to answer the Sensation Seeking Scale V (SSS; Zuckerman, as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006) in order to assess their personality trait, particularly the different dimensions of the sensation seeking domain of personality traits.

Just to note, sensation seeking is also composed of four traits which includes thrill and adventure seeking (TAS), adventure seeking (ES), disinhibition (DIS), and boredom susceptibility (BS). TAS is the attraction to thrill and dread; ES as the aspiration to go through variety of novel and unconventional experiences; DIS is the loss of self control; and BS is the intolerance toward repetitious, monotonous, or predictable people and events. Previous research had demonstrated that TAS is related to art preference (Rawlings, Barrantes i Vidal, & Furnham,2000; cited in Rosenbloom, 2006).

With the simple procedure of the experiment, results show support to the first hypothesis as a positive correlation was found between color preference and degree of sensation seeking, particularly with subscale TAS (r=.26, p=.04). On the other hand, the hypothesis that sensation seekers or those who avoid boredom would use more colors than those who are in the opposite side of the continuum was only partially supported. Apparently TAS was not involved with divergent selection of colors but DIS. That is, individuals scoring high on disinhibition tend to use more colors than those with lower scores. From the past studies, it was found that disinhibition, the loss of self-control, is related to liking abstract and pop art as well as to surreal painting (Furnham & Avison, 1997; Furnham & walker, 2001; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006). Unparallel results to hypothesis thus call for future investigation. Likewise, as previous studies had also shown inconsistent gender difference of color preferences, the present study did not show any as well, calling for future investigation too.

To summarize, studies show association between color preference and personality trait, particularly in the domain of openness to experience, specifically the sensation seeking’s subscale, thrill and adventure seeking. Implying that when one prefers to use red or other "hot" colors, he or she is more adventure seeker compare to another who prefers blue or other "cold" colors who are more calm and used to patterned and routine life and relating it to the physiological effects of these colors to our body and also to our emotions as mentioned in the earlier explanations.

Reference:
Rosenbloom, T. (2006). Color preferences of high and low sensation seekers. Creativity Research Journal. 18(2). 229-235. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Goldstein, E. B. (2010). Sensation and perception (8th ed.). California, USA: Wadsworth.