Does Colour Matter?

Whilst I was listening to the final of the Australian Open on the radio a brief debate emerged between the two commentators, Jonathan Overend and Pat Cash.

Overend, who does extraordinarily well keeping the listener in touch with what’s happening in the rallies, made a passing reference to the colour of Roger Federer’s shirt, describing it as “purple”.

Cash queried this, suggesting it was more of a blue. Overend, with a delightfully flawed piece of logic, pointed out that, since the court was blue and since Federer’s shirt wasn’t the same colour as the court, the shirt could not be blue.

For the record Nike, who make the shirt, describe the colour as “concord”, whatever that is!

I’ve quite often experienced similar situations: one person innocently labels a colour and another counters with an alternative. It makes you wonder if we all see the same thing?

With colour labelling being so subjective, it has always seemed to me somewhat dodgy when people have suggested that there is a science behind how we react to colours. If we don’t see them in the same way we’re hardly likely to react similarly.

Indeed, there is no shortage of pseudo-science and new-age mysticism to be found on the subject. I typed “colorology” into Google not knowing what I would find, and 14,300 entries were returned, many promising that my life would be enhanced immeasurably if only I were to spend a little money and get the right colours in my life.

Some offered to throw in psychic readings based on my “life colour”. No thanks.

The scientific world has not devoted too much attention to the issue of colour. There are a few theories and studies around but, given how colourful life is, surprisingly little has been studied in depth.

Recently a couple of new pieces of research have shown that colour does change behaviour and there are important implications for anyone with something to sell.

Turn the page to find out what they discovered...»

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