Color is one of the places where my two major interests intersect. As a mental health professional I am interested in the psychological and emotional impact of color and the way color reflects personality, emotion and mood. As a photographer I am concerned with colour as a compositional element, and the way it influences the reaction of people to images, how the same picture rendered in different hues changes the meaning and impact of the picture and the viewers’ reaction to it.

Perceptions of color are subjective, and there few color effects that have universal meaning. Much of the meaning that we believe are inherent in colors are in fact socially ascribed. As an extreme example, death is symbolized by black in most Western cultures but by white in many Eastern cultures. Even members of the same culture from different age groups can respond differently to the same hue.

Several ancient cultures, including the Egyptians and Chinese, believed colors could be used to heal. Alternative Therapists still apply this method, referring to it variously as Chromo therapy, light therapy or colourology. According to this theory, red stimulates the body and mind and to increase circulation, yellow was thought to stimulate the nerves and purify the body, orange is used to heal the lungs and to increase energy levels, while blue is believed to soothe illnesses and treat pain and indigo alleviate skin problems.

No well conducted research actually supports the practice and most health professionals view colour therapy with skepticism. Research has demonstrated that any mood-altering effects of color is temporary; a blue room may make some people feel calm, but the effect will be dissipate after a short period of time. Physical changes are even more transient, and are better explained as psychological effects of trust, expectancy and suggestion.

Psychology continues to study the effect of color on human behavior and emotion, but since color symbolism is an unstable cultural construct, varying with time, place, the same color may perform very different symbolic or psychological functions over time, even in the same culture. Because of this, color psychology is a contentious area of study dependent more on anecdotal evidence than data from well designed studies.

Tests of character and personality have been popular from time to time. However it is extremely difficult to standardize colors (just what colour is “red”?) and even in small samples, the tests and the theories on which they are based have proved unreliable.

One example is the work of Max Luscher who suggested colour preferences could be used to determine individual personality traits. His famous test utilized cards of different colors which subjects arranged in order of preference. Participants who preferred blue were said to be passive and sensitive. Like palm reading or horoscopes, the resulting analysis was prone to interpretation and generally seen to fit a wide range of individuals.

Fashion designers and architects may have a better and more practical understanding of colour. They certainly understand how transient their offerings may be, and in fact depend on it. Even so, Western fashion offers some “rules” for colour. For instance, black is thought to be always in style. It is popular in fashion because it is believed to make people appear thinner.

Again to the Western mind, black also implies both submission and authority and power. Priests wear black to signify submission to God through which they have (or perhaps, had) authority within the church. How confusing then to claim that a woman wearing black is showing submission to men, and that men in black are aloof or evil.

Black is not a color, of course, but the absence of color. White is not a color, either, and it too has interesting associations. As pointed out earlier, in many cultures it is the color of death, yet in the west, brides wear white to symbolize innocence and purity. What, I wonder, does a Japanese bride experience when she adopts the western ideal and marries in white, as we see so often? Perhaps this ready transfer of cultural meaning is evidence that these psychological impacts are really not very significant after all. But they do exist.

Are there any “facts”? Exposure to some shades of red stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing. Red calls attention to itself: in a photograph, it is the first color noticed and the longest remembered. Red clothes get noticed (which may be because red has been associated with “scarlet women” rather than the other way around).

Pink is quite interesting. Intense, “hot” pink has been reported to have a tranquillizing effect. There was a period during the 1970s when gaol solitary cells, and seclusion rooms in mental hospitals were painted bright pink; violent and disturbed people placed in them were believed to calm much more quickly and to need less medication. They have long since been abandoned. Sports teams have sometimes painted the locker rooms used by visiting teams bright pink so their opponents would lose energy. I have no idea if that was ever reflected in the scores!

The color of the sky and the ocean, blue is one of the most popular colors. It is supposed to cause the opposite reaction to red, prompting the body to produce calming chemicals, so it is often used in bedrooms. But blue can also be cold and depressing (ever had the blues?), and fashion consultants have recommend wearing blue to job interviews believing it symbolizes loyalty.

Green is no more common in nature than other colors, yet somehow it has come to symbolize the natural world. It is the easiest color on the eye and is claimed to improve vision. There is a belief that artists about to appear on TV wait in "green rooms" because the color is relaxing: not so... this is a left over from the days when theatres were lit by intense greenish “limelights: the green walled rooms lessened the impact on their eyes when they went on stage. Hospitals once use green because it was thought to relax patients, but this practice has been largely discarded, with no detrimental effect on patients.

Color theorists have devised many theories linking colors to emotions, but their results contradict each other and it has become clear that no standard exists. Sadly, trustworthy evidence proving that color causes any quantifiable psychological or other effect upon humans does not exist.