How colors affect you Brain and Thinking

We see this world not the way it is, but the way our brain perceives it. We think that we are free, but we are all slaves of our senses. In this article we will talk about our eyes, the broad color spectrum that our eyes can see, gives us the power to experience the beauty of this universe. But most of us don't know that the colors that we see are not just colors, but they are switches that can trigger certain feelings, emotions, thoughts and much more inside our body. 

Scientists know this fact from long-ago, and advertisers use this science to attract customers towards their products. They use those colors in their advertisements and product packaging which attract the customers. Manufacturers often experiment by changing their logo and packaging, on advise of experts to check if this color-science actually works, and the truth is that most of the time it works.

We see an image with the help of millions of nerve endings in the retina. Our brain is stimulated by the colors in the images and changes our emotions to happy, angry, sad or anxious.

  • Fast-food companies often use red and yellow color primarily in their logos. It is because yellow makes you hungry, and red makes you think about food
  • In 1985, European doctor Ponza found that blue color have the ability to calm down an aggressive patient.
  • In 1942 Goldstein conducted research to find positive and negative effects of colors. It was found that red color have negative effect on brain damaged or Parkinson patients, while green color led to improvement in condition.
  • In 1974 K.W. Jacobs and F.E. Hustmyer found that colors of long wavelength are more stimulating to our brain. So Red stimulates our brain more than green, green stimulates more than blue and yellow.
  • Excessive stimulus due to a color on our brain, can cause changes in breathing pattern, blood pressure and muscle tension. Anxiousness, loss of concentration, nervousness and sleeplessness is also observed as effect of different colors.
  • In 1976 Rikard Kuller, demonstrated that colors not just affect the outer layer of brain, but the entire central nervous system. 
  • When researchers used the advanced equipment like EEG, pulse measuring systems and measured the alpha brain waves, they concluded that men and women react differently to different colors.
  • In 2009, suicide rates reduced by 74% after blue lights were installed at the end of platforms on Tokyo's Yamanote railway line.
  • In 2015, researchers found that red light slightly raise heart rate, while blue light slightly lowers it.
  • Researchers also found that warm-colored placebo pills are found more effective than cool-colored placebo pills.

Why colors affect our brain ?

The light captured by our eyes is not just transmitted to the image forming areas in our brain. Researchers have found non-image-forming visual pathways in our brain. It means that light and colors captured by our eyes is not just utilized for image formation but also for other purposes. For example, our biological clock which regulates different functions of body is regulated by light and colors received through non-image-forming visual pathways. We still don't know all such pathways, but we are sure that they exist and control a number of features of human behavior. 

Post a Comment