Are You Seeing Black?

Let me introduce you to the psychology of colors. Colors influence. Colors set the tone. Colors can encourage you to buy, to eat or be irritable. Look at the chart. Don’t believe me? Stick with me…I’ll illustrate after the chart. (This chart was compiled from several articles.)

Color	Emotions	Physical	Examples
Red	Encourages appetite Increases passion and intensity Invokes anger or aggression Excited, energized, adventurous, ready to go	Raises blood pressure Raises heart rate, breathing and nervous system Increases stamina Captures senses	Red rose, symbol of love Used by restaurants to stimulate appetite Creates urgency, as in clearance sales Used for impulsive shoppers Encourages people to gamble and take risks
Yellow	Uplifting and cheerful Enhances creativity Not soothing Imaginative, wondering More energetic and alert Associated with memory, clear thinking Encourages communication	Strains eye Not soothing Stimulates brain Causes fatigue Makes babies cry Stimulates mental processes	Sunshine, smiley faces Represents optimism, youth Grabs attention of window shoppers Shows clarity
Blue	Curbs appetite Associated with water, peace Most preferred by men Represents calmness, serenity Increases productivity Creates security, trust	Decreases heart rate, breathing and blood pressure Creates mental control and creativity Calms mind	Non-invasive Most used color in offices
Orange	Reflects excitement, enthusiasm Shows warmth Warnings, caution		Signifies aggression Creates call to action, buy, sell, subscribe Encourages impulsive shoppers Friendly, cheerful, confident brand
Green	Constitutes health, tranquility Symbolizes money Pictures nature Alleviates depression Represents new growth Connected to healing		Used to create relaxation in stores Associated with wealth Symbol of fertility Used in night vision goggles because eye is most sensitive to and able to discern the most shades of it Workers in green environment have fewer stomach aches
Purple	Increase clarity Soothe, calm Stimulates creativity, spirituality and compassion imaginative, wise Causes peace Combats fear		Shows royalty, wealth, success, wisdom Used often in beauty or anti-aging products
Black	Associated with silence, calmness, death Discourages growth and change

Don’t believe the chart?

Marketers do. They use color to influence buyers every day.

Marketers Believe In the Influence of Color

Ever wonder why McDonald’s, K-mart, Target, Kellogg’s, Frito-Lay, Lays, Avis, Red Robin, Exxon, Ace Hardware, and Coco-Cola use red in their logo? It is not by accident that most food-related logos have some red in them.

What about National Geographic, Hertz, CAT, Sun Chips, Best Buy, and Pennzoil with their yellow logos?

Blue is used for Facebook, Twitter, Pepsi, Oreo, Skype, Lowe’s, Oral B, Dell, Ford, and Walmart. You want to be calm in Lowe’s or Walmart as you wonder their aisles finding what you “need.”

Orange is found in Nickelodeon, Amazon, Payless, Harley-Davidson, Gulf, Crush, and Discover. Spend more: you really do ‘need’ another pair of shoes.

Green shows up in Starbucks, Land Rover, Holiday Inn, 7-Eleven, Tropicana, and Whole Foods. Take your time, look around, you will stay longer and find more things of interest. (My green website background was not chosen for this reason. I like green; in my world of busy adventures, I need calm things. But you are free to stay and linger as long as you would like.)

What does purple say in these logos: Yahoo, T-Mobile, Taco Bell, Hallmark, Welch’s, and Craigslist? Don’t you feel in charge when you walk into Taco Bell and demand a ‘taco without onions’?

Consumers claim the primary reason they purchase a product is color 84.7% of the time.

People decide whether to purchase a product in 90 seconds based on 93% visual appearance, 6% texture, 1% sound and/or smell.

Between 62-90% of that assessment to purchase or not to purchase is based on color alone.

Color ads are read 42% more often than black and white ads.

Does knowing all that help you control your impulses? Maybe you might think twice if you are in a red dominant room--maybe you aren’t as hungry as you thought! During the winter when colors are bleak and dreary, the cloud cover hangs low over my sunshine and I have more trouble being thankful and cheery. I add color and candles to give light. This lifts my dreariness and helps me refocus.

Recognizing the influence of colors can help us with how we respond, what we do, how we feel. Knowing that colors influence can help avoid areas of weakness (shopping when depressed, eating when you're not hungry) so we can transform our minds to focus on what we should do. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

How do we renew our minds? “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything is worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8) If we focus our minds on these things, color may still influence us (after all, it is neither good nor evil, God made it), but we won’t be controlled by it. We can actually transform our environment to be thankful even in ‘black’ surroundings.

How have you used color to help you refocus?

¹ ^{https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/?s=secret+of+colors

2} ^{http://www.color-chart.org/}
³ ^{http://www.examiner.com/article/how-color-effects-us}
⁴ ^{http://www.pantone.com/pages/Pantone/Pantone.aspx?pg=19382&ca=29

5}Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by Permission.