It seems like you want more so I’m going to keep going. So I’ll add a few more paragraphs from my favorite article on the subject of color. The article was out of a magaize Called Heath – July 1982 by Leslie Kane.

In any given society, particular colors affect almost everyone in the same way. “Colors have a uniform effect within a Western European tradition, which includes Japan,” says Margaret Walch, director of the Color Association of the United States, which standardizes the 192 colors in current use by industry and government.

In general, dark colors strike us as evil and foreboding, while light colors seem not only cheerful but physically light as well. Bonnie Bender, color marketing manager at Pittsburgh Paints and an authority on color and psychology, reports that in an experiment testing the psychological effects of paint on worker productivity, researchers painted heavy boxes white and light boxes black. Workmen had considerable more trouble lifting the light black boxes than the heavy white ones.

Marcella Graham, a medical technologist, color consultant and interior designer, described an equally dramatic example of the use of color to lift depression and stimulate activity. Called in for a consultation on staff and patient apathy in a hospital, she found the whole place painted light and medium chocolate brown and two shades of grey green. Graham advised painting the hospital floor by floor, using pumpkin orange, strawberry pink, emerald green and lavender. (Simply putting in pink curtains or orange bedspreads produced its effect.) Patient response to the brilliant colors was immediate and positive. Elderly men shaved and dressed to get out of bed each day. Female patients began circulating and visiting in the halls and requested powder, combs, lipstick and stockings. Even staff morale picked up.

If colors exert such a powerful force on mental and physical health, it behooves us to know more about them.”

Next time, we will break down each color. I’ll start with this article and add research from other sources.

I apologize for the wait of the power of colors series. We are going to talk about the color pink. Some people think the color pink is a form of red. In a way, they are right. Yet, pink has elements within it that is totally different than red. The color pink is soothing and calming while red causes the opposite effect. As you read what is in Leslie’s article, you will see for yourself.

PINK THE PACIFIER

Pink is restful: it can even convey a purity that makes people reluctant to desecrate it. In a study done by graduate students at Texas Wesleyan College, Fort Worth, children kept in different- colored corrals were given a variety of playthings, including paints and crayons. The children eagerly decorated all the corral walls except the pink ones, which remained virtually spotless. When the researchers regrouped the children to see if these youngsters who painted the most graffiti would have differently in another group, the results were confirmed: Pink walls effectively kept off graffiti.

A study of 153 men at the U. S. Naval Correctional Center showed that a particular shade known as Baker-Miller pink can curb aggressive tendencies and actually reduces physical strength. When prisons began using Baker-Miller pink, some were able to lower the number of guards on duty. At latest count, says Schauss, more than 1400 hospitals and correctional institutions in America are using pink for its tranquilizing effects.
“The calming effect of pink begins in about two and half seconds,” says Schauss. “It is noticeable in ten to fifteen minutes. In forty-five minutes, it is fully realized. The younger you are, the faster it works on you.”
And like any drug-type reaction, pink responses can get out of hand. For example, pink walls should not be used on psychotics, Schauss says. The pink color relaxes psychotics outwardly, but their minds remain disturbed. This creates a dissonance, which disturbs them, still further.

In other studies, the color pink was found to animate intelligence and respect. The color peach has a different effect on us. People add gold to the color pink to create peach. The gold removes the calming effect of pink. Research has shown gold or yellow stimulates someone to action. If you add it to pink, then you have altered the emotional effect. You have toned down the yellow by adding a calming color and there is nothing wrong with it.

To understand the difference between the two colors is known to be hard. If you want to know the difference between pink and peach, you can use gold and silver. I like to wear a gold and silver ring on different hands. This way, when I happen to see a piece of clothing in a store, the rings help me see if gold is mixed in with the pink.

I place the two rings on the color. If gold jumps out to me, then I know there is no gold within the color pink. If my silver ring jumps out to me, then I know someone has added gold to the color.

Sometimes, your eye jumps back and forth trying to land on a ring. When this happens, it means there is gold in the color pink, but not enough to make it a true peach. You might find it interesting to test it yourself. The color pink is a powerful color and it helps to understand it.

Let’s take the power of colors and add them to your life. I’m going to add more articles about how color affects us in our homes and on us personally when we wear certain colors. Right now, we are going to cover the last of Leslie Kane’s article before we move on to other information.

Adding Color to Your Life
When you use colors to evoke a particular mood, you must take into account not only your own color preferences but also your environment outside the home, says Walch of the Color Association. To provide a psychological boost, your home should represent a color “break” from the outside environment.

For example, because the brown landscape in the Southwest offers very little color, people living there tend to favor flaming orange, hot pink and other vibrant colors in their homes.

“I think most people are color-deprived,” Walch says. “People have real color needs, just as they have food needs. It is human and healthy to desire color change. If I live in a white space all day at work, I need a splash of color at home. But,” she warns, “the bolder the color statement, the more quickly you may tire of it. You may love the idea of a red kitchen, but you grow bored with the real thing.”

Remember, too, that colors exist within a cultural context. “We can’t ignore the strong, long-standing associations people make with colors,” Walch says. “Take brown. The dying grass is brown; school desks are brown. We think of brown as dreary and utilitarian. So I wouldn’t want to paint my walls brown.”

When selecting paint, wallpaper, carpeting or furniture, keep in mind that color is partly determined by the light in which is seen. A carpet sample that looks fresh green under the store’s cool white fluorescent lighting will appear hunter green under daylight fluorescents and olive green at home under incandescent light. So be sure to check your paint or carpet in the lighting in which it will live. That way you won’t end up being so angry that you see red.

That bit of advice is very good. You do need to see your colors in the environment. Using color to create moods in your home is fun. I’ve taught one of my daughters what I know. With her classes at a university on design, she has taken it to another height. We will talk about it in another series of articles.

I want to follow Leslie Kane’s article a little more and talk about color and lights. She has some very interesting information.

Color and Light
Colored lights or colored filters surrounding a light also affect your health and mood. Oddly, light of a particular color may promote the opposite effect from paint of the same color. For an example, while pink walls can be soothing, pink light is irritating. John Ott, former director of the Environmental Health and Light Research Institute, Sarasota, Florida, reports that when staff members at a Florida radio station tried to perk up the place by replacing white florescent bulbs with deep pink tubes, announcers began performing poorly on the air. Everyone became irritable and two people resigned.

Finally, one employee pinpointed the problem: “If those pink bulbs aren’t removed, I’ll go out of my mind.” That day, the new tubes were discarded and the old ones were returned. Within a week, tempers calmed, congeniality improved, the announcers regained their competence and both resignations were withdrawn.

A new double-blind study done at the University of California School of Nursing illustrates the healing effects of blue lights. When rheumatoid-arthritis patients were in a room in which a blue colored filter had been positioned over a ceiling light, their pain lessened and in some cases disappeared entirely. Half an hour under the lights was usually enough to ease pain.

In another study, Francis Owens, MD, of Pinehurst, North Carolina, treated burn patients by exposing them to light shining through green filters. After half an hour, the patients—some of whom had second and third degree burns—reported that their pain had eased dramatically. The burns also healed more quickly than expected.

Ott also reports a striking example of interaction involving color light, psychology and physiology. Seeking an explanation for the high absentee rate in their plant, factory owners found that the blue lighting in work areas made women employees look sick. Looking sick made them believe they were sick, so they stayed home more often. The plant owners got rid of the blue lights, and absenteeism dropped.

I thought this was interesting and have played around with lights. In another study, they found the traditional yellow fluorescent tube lights drain your energy. They used them for years in stores and offices. Some people used them within their homes because they were supposed to use less energy. We are going to continue with the power of colors.

Blue is an interesting color and it has a lot of power. So many people list blue as their favorite color. I’ve run into other people who have loved it, but they are now sour on the color. There is a very important reason why.

As you can see from the title below, blue is a tranquil color. This is what Leslie Kane found about it. This is one of my favorite studies.

BLUE – THE TRANQUILIZER

Blue evokes a mood of tranquility and serenity. Almost any shade of blue will do it, from cobalt to sky blue to sapphire. An intriguing new study done at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, investigated the effect of blue surrounding a class of behaviorally disturbed children, some of whom were blind. The researchers first measured the kids’ baseline heart rate, respiration, and other physiological indicators.

Then the walls of the classrooms were painted light and dark blue. All of the physical indicators went down and the children became noticeably calmer – even the blind children! Researchers and teachers who observed the children during the one month other blue-paint period were amazed at how calm they were. When the classrooms were repainted their original brown and yellow, the children’s heart rates, respiration, and pulse rates went back up and hyperactive behavior resumed.

“The fact that the blind children experienced this effect provides strong evidence that color has a direct bio-chemical pathway to the brain,” Schauss says. “It works as long as the retina of the eye is attached to the brain. However, if a blind child closes his eyes so that color cannot strike the retina, the effect won’t work.”

According to Bonnie Bender of Pittsburgh Paints, blue can make a room seem like its color, too. “A large office was repainted from a soft orange to aqua,” she says. “The women began to complain of being chilly and some wore sweaters or jackets at their desks. They asked to have the office temperature raised. When the walls were repainted a warm color, the complaints stopped and management saved on the heating bills.”

Blue has also been shown to prevent suicide. The Blackfriars Bridge, a gloomy-looking black bridge over Thames River in London, was a favorite leaping-off point for despondent citizens.

Color consultants suggested painting the bridge Baker-Miller pink, but the public got huffy at the idea of a pink bridge. They settled for the next most soothing color, blue. The suicide rate at the bridge immediately dropped.

I love these reports or case studies. They are not some one opinion of how a color should affect us. The proof is there for all of us to think about. The power of colors is there even if we want to admit it or not.

Also, I want to add something that she didn’t talk about. You can warm up blue. When we mix gold or yellow with it, we get a periwinkle blue. This is a warmer color than a blue without the gold. This might be a tip that you might want to remember.

We are going to talk about how to use these colors together in the same room to create the right feelings in later articles. If people want, I will put this all into an e-book that you can download. Let me know!