#ColorChallenge + Psychology of the Color Yellow

To begin with, that beautiful baby in the picture is my cat, Mulder. He is 6 years old and he really likes to play with insects, little frogs, and spying everyone on the street through my room's window.

I really liked this #colorchallenge thingy, but besides showing my best #wednesdayyellow picture, I'd like to talk a little about the psychology of colors.

There is an ‘explanatory gap’ between ordinary physical facts and the way we perceive things, so that it is impossible to explain, among other things, why colours actually look the way they do.

Basically, we all recognize colors (unless you are daltonic, sorry) but the same yellow you see is the same yellow the person next to you sees? No, not really.

Scientists believe that color perception may not be predetermined like many have believed for hundreds of years. Instead of a set pattern, scientists doing research with monkeys found that color perception may instead be shaped by the outside world.

Now, what about the color yellow? What do we perceive?

Yellow is a contradictory color, it represents jelousy and optimism, it's the color of fun, understanding but it is also the color of betrayal.

There are, at least, 115 yellow tones perceived by the human eye. Like blue and red, is one of the primary colors but is not very popular among people: only 6% of the humans in the world like this color.

A study asked around 2000 people what this color make them feel like:

• 30% say it represents fun
• 18% associate it with pleasure
• 20% think is the color of kindness
• 27% think represents optimism

They seem like good statistics, right? Well, yeah. Because yellow is often the color that represents the Sun, gold, light... it is the color of understanding. Imagine now an angel, do you picture him with blonde hair? Probably you do, and that's because angels belong to heaven, heaven is "in the sky" and the sky is closer to the Sun; it is something pure, valuable, and full of love.

However, people also associate the color yellow with envy, jealousy, selfishness, and greed. But this does not exactly relates to "the true yellow"; negative emotions are related to this color when it is mixed with another one, for example, yellow with a pinch of green resembles sulfer, and it represents something stinky.

Remember Hyppocrate? He tried to study human personality and divided it into 4 humors:

• Melancholic, moody, quiet, reserved, rigid
• Phlegmatic, passive, reliable, calm, controlled
• Choleric, active, optimistic, aggressive, restless
• Sanguine, sociable, responsive, carefree, leader
  

Each type of temperament, according to Hippocrate, relates to certain color; he believed certain human moods, emotions and behaviors were caused by body fluids (called “humors”): blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm

People needed an even balance of the four body fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. These four body fluids were linked (in daft ways by modern standards) to certain organs and illnesses, do you know we yellow has such a bad reputation despite of what people feel towards it? Because it resembles the yellow bile, hot and dry, like the Choleric temperament.

Yellow is also perceived as a warning signal, and it's often associated with being spontaneous, impulsive, impertinent.

It is the color of traitors! Have you seen an illustrated Bible? Judas Iscariot is often shown with a yellow tunic, so if you are thinking about creating a political party, please avoid yellow if you want to gain people's trust.

Are you a yellow fan? Not really my favorite color, but hey! Mulder is cute ain't he? ;)