Colors of Fear

Abstract

Man's ability to use his senses has allowed him to adapt and interact with his environment, thus allowing him to live. However, this is a purely pragmatic approach to our senses and their use. An interesting approach has to do with how our senses, and what we perceive through them can alter and affect our emotional state. Here we examine how different colors, when presented visually, affect fear response. For the requirements of this experiment 24 undergraduate students were selected to participate. All were psychology majors and attended the American College of Greece. The result revealed significant difference between colors and the levels of fear they elicited, with those colors associated with negative feeling, eliciting more fearful responses.

The Effects of colors on levels of fear

Man's ability to touch and feel, taste, see, hear, smell has allowed him to adapt and interact with his environment, thus allowing him to live. However, this is a purely pragmatic approach to our senses and their use. A more interesting approach has to do with how our senses, and what we perceive through them can alter and affect our emotional state.

Colors convey emotions. Here we will focus on the colors and the emotions they invoke when presented in words. In essence when we use our vision in order to perceive them. In everyday life we have seen that we use expressions that clearly connect colors with emotions. Such examples include that one is feeling blue, meaning, he is sad, or that he turned green with envy (Terwogt & Hoeksma, 1995).

In a study by Schachtel (1943; cited in Terwogt & Hoeksma, 1995), any connection between colors and emotions stems from a purely subjective experience. Nevertheless, this explanation does not account for the way that specific colors are related to specific emotions and emotional states in any given society and culture. Gerard (1957; cited in Terwogt & Hoeksma, 1995) attempted to answer this by saying that for instance, the color red is tied to the emotion of anger and this is due to the common physiological reaction patterns that these to cause.

Other studies have tried to identify the relationship between colors and emotion that stem out of cultures. According to DÑŒrsteler (2002), 'although there is a psychology of colour and some of them have universal emotional effects, in most cases their meanings are culture dependent'. There is a strong cultural component when we associate colours and emotions. Take the case of the colour green. In China it is associated with death, whereas, in the Western world the colour black is associated with death. Moreover, colours are typically divided into warm (yellows, reds, oranges) and cool ones (blues, greens and violets). Here we will state, some of the colours and the meanings associated to them in the Westernised world as proposed by DÑŒrsteler (2002).

Red: danger, excitement, fire, passion, blood, fight or flight, some sexual connotation.

Purple: Wealth, royalty, sophistication, intelligence.

Blue: Quietness, serenity, truth, dignity, constancy, reliability, power

White: Purity, cleanness, luminosity, vacuum.

Yellow: Hatred, jealousy, cowardliness

Orange: ignorance, sluggishness and superiority.

Green: Nature, fresh, vegetation, health, green/blues are the favourites of consumers

According to Howels (1944), there is a linkage of senses commonly referred to as synesthesia. This means that stimuli that normally trigger a response in one kind of receptor, they may trigger a response to other receptors that are supposedly specific to other stimuli. Terwogt & Hoeksma (1995) give an example where dark colors are used in order to refer to heaviness and red with warmth. Therefore, it seems reasonable to think that colors have an affective positive or negative value, which depends on personal as well as social factors (Rusinek, 2004). Moreover, mood could influence perception and judgment of color. In fact, Vorsobin and Zhidkin (1980; cited in Rusinek, 2004) indicated that the preference for some colors such as red, orange, or yellow increases for children 5 to 7 years old when they find themselves in a situation that might be considered as pleasant.

Colors can also influence the mood of the subject. A study conducted by Deribere (1983; cited in Rusinek, 2004) indicated that a vivid green colour reduces aggressive behaviour and nervous tension. Furthermore, Shauss (1979; cited in Rusinek, 2004), that studied prison inhabitants, found that a pink color in their cells seemed to decrease their aggressive behaviour. In order to explain this, he referred to Gerard (1958; cited in Rusinek, 2004) who observed that subjects placed in front of a red or blue light for a short time showed a significant decrease in blood pressure and speed of electrodermal response, respiration, and blink reflex. All these physiological reactions may be directly related to changes in internal mood state.

As Kaya & Epps (2004, p.31) suggested that: 'the relationship between color and emotion is closely tied to color preferences. In particular, color preferences are associated with whether a color elicits positive or negative feelings. While particular colors have been found to be highly preferred regardless of age, racial group, or culture (Adams & Osgood, 1973, Eysenck, 1941; cited in Kaya & Epps, 2004), there is some evidence that color preference may be culturally-based. For example, Choungourian (1968; cited in Kaya & Epps, 2004) found that the colors red and blue were the most preferred colors among American subjects, but were less preferred in other cultures'. A comparison of Japanese and Korean subjects was made by, Saito (1996; cited in Kaya & Epps, 2004). He found unique color preference tendencies between the two countries, and also with respect to age, gender, and geographical region within the individual country. Within Western society, the most favored colors are blue, red and green in that particular order (Terwogt & Hoeksma, 1995).

Finally, Hupka et al. (1997), proposed the presence of a verbal - verbal association, which bears a similarity to the visual - verbal association. This means that people relate colors to adjectives of emotions. This suggestion was made because the cognitive process of associating colors and emotions was not so different for the two methodologies for instance seeing a word written in a red color or simply seeing the word red

On the whole, the