Can the Color of Your Room Affect Your Mood?
Whether we realize it or not color can play a big role in the way we feel. While we don't always think of interior design as having an affect on our health, research shows that color, texture and organization can all have an impact on our mood, energy levels, and choices. If you've ever noticed that a particular color can brighten your mood or a certain place can irritate then you understand. There is a reason why certain colors or spaces can have a calming or relaxing feeling associated with them. According to color scientist and consultant, Leslie Harrington, PhD,“Color can absolutely impact a person’s behavior and the way they think or feel.. When you walk into a red, pink, or blue room, we can see measured impact on heart rate, for example. It’s an involuntary bodily reaction.”
Color psychology is based on the mental and emotional effects the color has individuals. Although, there will always be variations in interpretation, meaning and feeling. According to researchers Andrew J. Elliot and Markus A. Maier, color can carry important meaning and can have an important impact on people's affect, cognition, and behavior. In a study called the Impact of Color in Marketing, researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone (depending on the product).
The ecological valence theory, considers the idea that we develop preferences for colors based on our emotional history with them over time. “The more enjoyment and positive affect an individual receives from experiences with objects of a given color, the more the person will tend to like that color.” (Palmer & Schloss, 2010, pp. 8878)
Why we associate colors with feelings
Our brain contains an associative network, and in each network lies circular nodes that represent units of knowledge whether its an emotion, sensory experience or a semantic meaning. Each node is connected to other nodes and the strongest connections will have the strongest similarities. For example, your node for the beach may have strong connections to swimming, sun tan lotion or salt, and the weaker connections may be umbrellas, radios or flip flops.
Your brain has a node for each color and each time you see that color that node is modified based on your experience. Many people attach specific meanings to different colors. For example, blue is known to be associated with calmness and relaxation. But colors do not have specific meanings, what they mean to us differs among each person. Even though many people may possess the same associations with color, the intensity of those connections differ on your past experiences. This is why marketers are very particular in the colors they use for specific products.
Example: Green
- Farmers may associate this with vegetables, land and the Earth
- Investors may interpret this for money, business etc
Context
Based on where we are seeing certain colors, different nodes are activated. A black kitchen appliance may not be associated with a funeral, like some may interpret black, because it is associated with a kitchen which has no connection to funerals. Red is a color often associated with passion and love but when red pens are used to grade tests it is often associated with failure.
Keep in mind the colors of objects in your home and what kind of feeling you are trying to invoke when stepping into a space. Because we are constantly staring at our phones and laptops, it may be helpful to have colors you positively associate with as your phone background or cases. Take a step further and look at the colors in your rooms, walls, and closet and see for yourself how your emotions may change when looking at one color to the next.
Clean Spaces
We covet aesthetically pleasing homes and work spaces but often times overlook the importance of being in clean, neat environments. There are countless organization tips and aesthetic pictures of studies and homes but what is it that makes these spaces so satisfying to be in?
In a study done by Indianapolis University, examined the relationship between homes and physical activity and found that those with cleaner, neater spaces were actually healthier because of their higher activity levels. NiCole Keith, associate professor in the Department of Physical Education at Indiana University-Purdue says, "At the end of the day, the interior condition of their house seemed to be the only thing affecting their physical activity,"
In a 2010 study published by the scientific journal and examined by the University of California-Los Angeles, studied 60 women and their linguistic behaviors when they described their homes.
Over 3 weekdays of following home tours, what they found is that women who described their homes with negative terms such as "cluttered" and "unfinished" had flatter diurnal slopes of cortisol and the women with higher restorative home scores had steeper cortisol slopes. The women who described their homes negativity showed to be more stressed and fatigued than the women who described their homes as "restful" or "restorative".
Additionally, in 2011 Princeton examined the effects of clutter when a person is trying to focus on a single task and found that being in a messy environment makes it more difficult to concentrate because they are overwhelmed by task-irrelevant objects.
Warm & Cool Colors
In order to examine the effects of color on emotions, the Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. conducted a study to find the impact of differentiating colored placebo pills.
The study showed that warm colored placebo pills, red, yellow, and orange were associated with more of a stimulant effect where else cool colors such as white, blue and green were related to a tranquilizing effect.t. It also showed that hypnotic, sedative, and anxiolytic drugs were more likely than antidepressants to be green, blue, or purple.
Red & Black
The Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, examined whether perception of the color red influences basic motor functioning. They found that the color red was associated with greater force and speed than the color gray, which gives reasoning to why the color red may prove useful to sports teams, athletic events, and gyms.
But again, association of color is often dependent on an individuals experience with it. The Journal of Experimental Psychology found that for college students seeing the color red before an exam resulted in lower test scores. "In the first of the six experiments described in the study, 71 U.S. colleges students were presented with a participant number colored either red, green or black prior to taking a five-minute test. The results revealed that students who were presented with the red number before taking the test scored more than 20 percent lower than those presented with the green and black numbers"
A study done to assess the effects of the color black found that athletes wearing the color black were more likely to receive a penalty or be associated with negative qualities.
While color can have an effect on how we feel and act, it is subject to each individual due to our past experiences and current associations with them. Keep in mind the cleanliness and neatness of your space as well as the colors you choose to be in those rooms. Try to stick to colors that may calm you and keep your surroundings well organized.
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