Banner by Elizabeth Gilfeather

Is Your Anger Red or Blue? 

By Navya Reddy

When you hear the phrase “seeing red,” you might automatically think of anger or rage. What might you think if you heard “white of anger” or “blue of anger”? In Latvia, people will depict levels of anger by saying they are white, red, blue, or black with anger. However, in Western cultures, red is clearly anger, while black is reserved for grief and sadness, and white represents purity. Yet, in Eastern cultures, white is worn at funerals, not weddings, and brides wear red, the color of love and passion. 

This range of meanings associated with each color might seem too broad to have any biological foundation, but The International Color-Emotion Survey conducted in 2018 contradicted this. The survey found that red was often associated with anger and love. On a scale of 0–1, the similarity in red associations across cultures was 0.89. Yellow, associated with joy, and pink, associated with love and pleasure, also had strong similarities at 0.85 and 0.93 respectively. Other colors were less universal: Greek participants associated purple with sadness, while others associated it with more positive emotions. These results raise the question: to what extent color theory is based in our biology? Is it more nurture- or nature-based? 

Color theory revolves around the ways in which color can affect your emotions, attention, and memory. Colors can influence activity levels in your brain, hormone levels, and blood pressure. A study done in rats on the effects of prenatal exposure to certain colors showed that levels of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter involved in reducing anxiety, in cerebrospinal fluid were different in response to exposure to the colors red and black versus exposure to the colors blue and green. The study also showed similar results with adrenaline. Adrenaline is known for its involvement in the body’s ‘fight or flight’ response and for its involvement in the production of dopamine, part of the reward system, which is involved in ADHD and mood disorders. These neurotransmitters have major impacts on mood and play an important role in the treatment of psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety.

It is hard to tell whether these physiological effects from color are due to the associations made in our brains between colors and feelings or if we are born with these responses to certain colors. The color red activates the brain, making it pay attention. Evolutionarily, a predisposition to bright colors makes sense—poisonous plants are often red or other bright colors and, if these colors activate our brain, then it is easier to notice and avoid them. Though one might argue that we might simply pay more attention to red because we live in the world of stop signs, red lights, and flashing red exit signs, our brains might have associated bright colors and importance when developing these symbols.  

Another study was conducted by Dr. Bevil Conway to determine if the colors we see are actually distinct from each other, or if we just think they are because we were taught to categorize them. A technique called magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to look at electrical impulses in the brain and determine if brain patterns produced by colors that we consciously deem as unique from each other are actually different. They found that color is processed in a dynamic pattern across all regions involved in vision. The patterns in the brain for each color were dynamic, yet consistent from participant to participant, so researchers were able to determine what color the individuals were looking at based on what the MEG showed them. The results indicated a biological basis for our color association across all humans that is then influenced by culture as our brain adapts to the world. 

Another aspect of color processing that could give us a perspective on the nurture versus nature of color theory is synesthesia. Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon where a particular sense or cognitive process triggers another unstimulated sense. For example, with chromesthesia, a type of synesthesia, a particular sound will invoke a particular color or visual. Synesthesia can also cause emotional triggers based on visuals or vice versa; this occurs when cerebral structures processing emotion are altered during the development of synesthesia. An important question to ask when looking at this is: are the connections between the colors visualized and emotions consistent with color theory? For example, when someone with synesthesia feels joy, is the color that flashes across their field of vision yellow? Or when someone listens to sad music, do they see the color blue? 

While synesthesia varies greatly across individuals, the answers to these questions could greatly impact our understanding of color theory. The extent to which color theory is influenced by our biology versus our experiences can be explored by looking into how consistent the connections between colors and emotions are across people, specifically those with synesthesia. Knowing this could result in improvements in marketing, healthcare, psychology, and education.  Beyond this, learning about color theory can help us understand, regulate, and communicate our own emotions; we no longer need to explain our anger—we can show it as white, red, blue, or black.