Short Stuff: Color Psychology

Have you ever cried way longer than usual when you were in a yellow room? You’ve been smacked by color psychology my friend and it’s got your number. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 1:06Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. And I just realized that I opened this like a regular episode, but it's not because Jerry's not really here. She's here for Dave, who's possessed Jerry, which makes this a short stuff.

• 1:24Speaker 02

  That's right. And we are talking about color psychology today. You put this one together and I think it's a pretty good one because, you know, it seems sort of obvious to say that people have reactions to color and it is, but there's, there's a lot more that goes into it beyond just like seeing a color and having a feeling like where you were raised, what kind of culture you were raised in, maybe how old you are, maybe how you're feeling at the time, specific experiences with that kind of color. And there's a field that studies this called color psychology.

• 1:57Josh Clark?

  Yeah, um, so it's an interesting field in that it's very quickly figured out there's no universality to color psychology because of all of those factors that you just mentioned. It's a very personal response, but the fact that people do have emotional and psychological responses to color, which means that it's just totally symbolic to them, that that is worth investigating and diving into. And then also, there are some broad strokes, especially when you're talking about a large culture, a bunch of societies that form an even bigger culture, that you can manipulate to sell things to those people if you want to, using

• 2:42Josh Clark?

  color as a marketer advertiser.

• 2:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, a lot of thought, like beyond just your own home or whatever, how you want to paint your room, which, by the way, we're going to color drench our bedroom soon. Have you heard of this?

• 2:56Josh Clark?

  No.

• 2:57Speaker 02

  Color drenching is when you paint everything in there.

• 3:00Josh Clark?

  Oh, neat.

• 3:01Speaker 02

  The same color, like ceiling, trim, doors, everything.

• 3:05Josh Clark?

  What about like in lamps and stuff too, or just the stuff that's fastened down?

• 3:09Speaker 02

  No, no, no, just like walls, ceiling, trim, doors, everything you would normally paint. You painted all one color and it's, it sounds oppressive, but it's really kind of awesome. And it seems like a trend.

• 3:20Josh Clark?

  That sounds really cool. Are you doing it in matte? It seems like a matte would be best for something like that.

• 3:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, probably matte, uh, maybe semi gloss, but it'll be, um, I think it'll really cozy up our bedroom, which we're looking to do.

• 3:31Josh Clark?

  That's cool, man. Do you know what color you're going to get?

• 3:34Speaker 02

  Probably like a, a deep green, something kind of dark.

• 3:37Josh Clark?

  Okay. I, I used to have, um, back in the nineties, back when burgundy and dark blue and

• 3:43Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 3:44Josh Clark?

  hunter green were all, um, in fashion. I put them all together in my bedroom and it looked knockout.

• 3:51Speaker 02

  Awesome. Yeah. Well, I'll let you know how it goes.

• 3:54Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  I'll just, I'll just nudge you in bed and say, what do you think?

• 3:58Josh Clark?

  Perfect.

• 4:00Speaker 02

  All right. So we were talking about the obvious thing like just painting your room or something, but you know, a lot of thought goes into color design for logos and like the lobby of the big corporation, or what kind of color the, the nurses' uniform should be, or the kids' hospital room should be like, that's all color psychology.

• 4:19Josh Clark?

  For sure. There's also color symbolism too, where your culture basically says, hey, we believe wearing black is a sign of mourning. Like if you're in mourning, wear black. If you go to another culture, typically in the east, they'll say, no, you wear white when you're in mourning. Right? So there's not an inherent meaning or symbolism in colors. It's all what one culture decides that color means. Like another good example is associating luck with green. And you can actually trace that back to Ireland being considered the Emerald Isle, and leprechauns being associated with luck. So through a bunch of cultural

• 5:00Josh Clark?

  convolutions, the West associates green with good luck. Right? That you would not find that in other, other cultures. Right? So there is like a real culturally bound aspect to it. But like you said before, it gets even more gradated to where if you were chased by a bear in the woods as a kid, you're probably not going to like the color green very much. Or you're not going to like brown, because that reminds you of the color of the grizzly bear. Whereas somebody else would be like, I was raised on a farm and everything was brown and I loved it. So I love the color brown. It gets like that detailed and that granular. The upshot of the whole thing is, is that colors can affect us. And that in

• 5:42Josh Clark?

  and of itself, you just, it's so, we just know that. But if you step back and actually think about what's going on, it's actually kind of mind blowing, especially in the ways it affects us.

• 5:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure. They have done cross-cultural studies about, you know, how it is around the world. They found that American, Japanese, their concepts of warm and cold colors are about the same. But in Japan, blue and green are perceived as good, and red, purple, orange are perceived as bad. Where in the United States, red, yellow, green is considered good, and orange and red and purple, bad. Yeah, and one thing I wanted to mention about the mourning colors is we have a, an African-American church right around the block from us, and they have had their fair share of funerals over the years. And a lot of these, I've seen everybody wearing purple. And I wondered if that was a thing in the black community, or if it was just something

• 6:37Speaker 02

  particular to the person, like that was their favorite color.

• 6:41Josh Clark?

  I don't know, but I do know that purple and gold and white and black are all, depending on the culture, appropriate mourning wear.

• 6:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm curious. I mean, I hope someone could write in and tell me, because I never feel like I can just walk up to the gathering and say like, hey, was this person into purple? Or what's the deal?

• 7:00Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 7:01Speaker 02

  Not the right time.

• 7:02Josh Clark?

  I'm sorry for your loss, but I just have to ask you.

• 7:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:06Josh Clark?

  You want to take a break and come back and talk about the Crayola eight-pack of colors?

• 7:13Speaker 02

  Let's do it.

• 7:27Josh Clark?

  Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal on a truck from your local Toyota dealer.

• 7:36Speaker 02

  That's right. Make a smart buy on the off-road Ready Tacoma or Half-Ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and longest-lasting trucks, built with the strength for the tough jobs, the tech to power your next big adventure, and the rugged style for everything in between.

• 7:49Josh Clark?

  Or discover Toyota's off-road lineup, including the Iconic 4Runner and Land Cruiser, designed to go beyond the everyday. And with Toyota's proven reputation for quality and reliability, plus hybrid power on many models, you can get more For every mile and drive for less along the way.

• 8:05Speaker 02

  That's right. And long after you leave the lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with great resale value. So you could trade in for more when you're ready for your next Toyota. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.

• 8:29Speaker 02

  You know, you're never done decorating your home. You know what I mean?

• 8:32Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 8:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, because it's a process. There's always something you could do or buy or update. The only question is, what's next? For us, our animals just wear out our rugs so quickly. It's usually a new rug.

• 8:43Josh Clark?

  Well, Chuck, whether you need a rug or whatever is next for you, you can go to Wayfair. It's the smart place to get it.

• 8:50Speaker 02

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• 9:01Josh Clark?

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• 9:40Speaker 02

  All right, Josh promised, now that we're back, to talk about the Crayola 8. But as we do on Stuff You Should Know, we're not going to talk about all eight. We're just going to hit some highlights of those main colors and kind of talk a little bit about what most people feel. I'll go and start with red. I think we should talk about red, because that's the color that kind of has the strongest reaction usually out of people, because red is just a very big, bold, brave choice in a lot of cases. They say if you have a red car, you're gonna get pulled over more often by cops. They report feelings of strength when you wear red, or courage, or aggression. It can actually increase your heart rate and energy level. And obviously, red is why, you know, you paint stop signs red.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  It's because it's a real eye grabber, or a warning label is red, because it'll catch your eye.

• 10:30Josh Clark?

  Right. And another one, I, it depends on the shade. Or I guess the saturation or value.

• 10:39Speaker 02

  Ooh.

• 10:40Josh Clark?

  But I like orange sometimes. Apparently, a lot of people can't stand orange. And I get that, because there are colors that I can't stand.

• 10:48Speaker 02

  Like, like what?

• 10:49Josh Clark?

  I really don't like magenta.

• 10:52Speaker 02

  Hmm, what's magenta? Is that like a purple?

• 10:54Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's like a reddish-purple, like, like red-ish-purple.

• 10:58Speaker 02

  What's your favorite color?

• 11:00Josh Clark?

  Um, blue, often like a robin's egg blue, but also I like, um, royal blue's kinda nice. Dark blue, the bluer blues, rather than the darker blues, I usually kind of lean toward, but, um, yeah. I also like pastels.

• 11:17Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, sure. You've got, you're a nice stable of like pastel sweatshirts and things?

• 11:21Josh Clark?

  I do.

• 11:23Speaker 02

  Uh, I tend to depend on the season. I really,

• 11:27Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah, good point.

• 11:27Speaker 02

  You know, kind of obviously love like burnt oranges and browns and, and sort of forest greens in the fall and winter. Uh, and I brighten up a bit, but I definitely love greens and browns and hues of orange the most, I think.

• 11:42Josh Clark?

  I see.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, but which one are we talking about? Yellow? No, orange.

• 11:46Josh Clark?

  Well, we just kind of finished orange. I mean, it's just all over the place. I think there's just so many different weird associations. This list says flamboyance, energy, comfort, warmth. I mean, you can't really put four different things that are less associated with one another together.

• 12:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure. I do like black. I like wearing black things. I always have. Black is beautiful. Black is powerful. Authoritativeness comes to mind, obviously, like strength. It can be overwhelming for a lot of people. Like, usually, painting walls black is... I mean, that's a big choice. I've got a couple of black walls in my house, like my office. I have one wall that's black. So like, but there are many shades within the black, like when you go to pick out paint colors. Black is not just black. And obviously, you know, in like westerns, the black hat symbolized good. The white hat symbolized, like, you know, the bad guy and the good guy.

• 12:40Josh Clark?

  And in hacking, too.

• 12:42Speaker 02

  Oh, okay.

• 12:43Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's true. Like, there's black hat hackers and white hat hackers.

• 12:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:49Josh Clark?

  We have to at least talk about yellow.

• 12:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, let's do it.

• 12:52Josh Clark?

  This, to me, is like, I think it's the most all-over color, because people like yellow. But it's associated with so many different things. Like, we call people who are cowards, they're called yellow, especially if you're an old-timey person. There's also like this idea that you might cry longer in a yellow room, which I cannot find anything to actually back that up. It's almost just become legendary. But I guarantee there's some study that said that at some point. But it's also considered very cheerful, right? I mean, yellow is like the color of the smiley face and the sun. And it's just, it depends on, again, not just like your experiences with yellow

• 13:34Josh Clark?

  or what your culture says yellow is, but your mood that day. Even more important, though, is there's not just one yellow. Like, you talked about how there's all these different shades of black.

• 13:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:46Josh Clark?

  All the colors have different saturations, just how colorful they are. Their value, the brightness, the hues, or the actual different colors. Like, all of these things, like a pale cream pastel yellow is going to make you feel differently than a neon yellow is. The neon yellow is going to make you run out and buy a Mountain Dew. The pastel creamy yellow is going to make you want to sit down and have tea.

• 14:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, agreed. Uh, I got, I mean, I think the rest of these people, people can go do more color research if they're, if they're planning their wardrobe or they're painting their house or something.

• 14:24Josh Clark?

  Yes.

• 14:25Speaker 02

  Uh, my advice is to, you know, you gotta get those small little tester sizes and just throw a little on the wall and see what you think. And then look at it in a bunch of different light, regular daylight, uh, cause that, that really can change the, the hue of a color is what kind of light you're using.

• 14:39Josh Clark?

  Flashlight, your power may go out at some point. You want to make sure it looks good in that, too.

• 14:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, for, for sure.

• 14:45Josh Clark?

  Uh, you got anything else then?

• 14:47Speaker 02

  I got nothing else.

• 14:48Josh Clark?

  It's all right, everybody. Short stuff is out.

• 14:54Speaker 03

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.