Color Concepts

Before reading this, if it isn’t to much bother, you might wish to read “Relativity of Colors”, in Philosophy.

Colors have a strange significance in the field of psychology. Blue is often considered a calm color for example. Blue is also considered to be moody. White is clean, exc. Now I wonder, if the way you view colors can easily be considered relative… Then why do certain colors often have certain effects, or stimulate different emotions and feelings in people, if what you see is all relative. Another example, sports teams that were red on their uniform or equipment are more likely to win, and restaurants often use the color orange. For some reason, orange is a stimulant as far as food is concerned (restaurants also like red and yellow, and red and yellow make orange). Do we manage to form ideas about colors simply from childhood, like we’ll refer to people as blue when they’re sad. Or we often associate red with anger. Black is often fear as a child, and depression when you get older, because what 3 year old isn’t afraid of the dark, and how many adults don’t fear depression?

Perceptual relativity only leaves open the possibility that people percieve colors differently - it doesn’t imply that this is generally the case.

I think that it’s most likely, given that our genetic material as a species is mostly homogeneous, that certain wavelengths of light affect most people in very similar ways.