Colour Psychology: Colours and Personality
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Many individuals are not aware of the impact colours have on their thoughts, behaviours, and emotions in daily life.
You have likely bought something or product over another because of the brand’s colour marketing: targeting colours, brands, and ads based on colours that influence you to buy it.
Colour Psychology
Colour psychology is being utilized in our everyday lives, and it goes beyond the brand names we buy. It also affects how we react to the environment.
It extends into the science of personalities. It is about proving that colours are not all about what looks the best. It also is about what meaning those colours have on our subconscious and how to use that to our benefit.
Colour Psychology: Colors and Personality
Many experiments and studies have been done over multiple years (2010, 2014, 2015 and 2019) have given scientists better insight into people’s personalities based on colour psychology.
Orange – Colour Psychology
Orange is represented by freedom, creativity, success, happiness, and the balance that brings it together. Sellers use orange to bring attention to a memorable heading on their website (many “alerts” are orange to get your attention).
Orange – Personality Range:
- Social and an extrovert
- Playful and fun energy
- You nurture things
- Loves to host events and parties
- Cheerful
- Conversationalist
Purple
Purple relates to power, wisdom, privilege, royalty, and spirituality.
Nevertheless, purple is also connected to being a frustrating colour, and it can cause feelings of frustration that can be seen as arrogant. Therefore, brands and websites (Hallmark, Yahoo) will use some purple or mixture of purple with warmer tones like white.
Purple Personality Traits:
- Quick-witted
- Loves to Stand Out
- Desire’s own identity
- Musical Person
- Creative
Blue
Blue is peaceful, trustworthy, stable, and harmonious. Certain brands that want to be known for their reliability, durability, or strength will put blue in their logo. Many famous tech companies (HP and Dell) and social media (Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter) are known for their blue and white logos.
Blue Personality Traits
- Peaceful
- Loyal
- Strong
- Trustworthy
- Gentle
- Compassionate
- Dependable
Red
Red is a bold colour choice associated with thrill, danger, action, excitement, passion, and energy. Some brands you may notice use red for their “action” buttons (such as “order now”). This is because red is an intense colour that can provoke heavy emotions that encourage people to buy things
Red Personality Traits:
- Adventure-lover
- Thrill-seeker
- Bold
- Intimidating
- A little impulsive
Green
The two things that are the most related to green are money and nature. Green relates to health, wellness, wealth, fertility, growth, generosity, and fertility. Although, green can also have negative implications like envy and jealousy.
Green Personality Traits:
- Down-to-earth
- Practical
- Enjoys the outdoors
- Enjoys helping others
- Loves giving advice
Yellow – Colour Psychology
Yellow relates to the warm summer sun, positivity, and happiness. Brands use a dash of yellow in their logo to make people feel happy when they see those products. In addition, most “free shipping” buttons on sites are yellow to attract you to something optimistic and cheerful.
Yellow Personality Traits:
- Cheerful
- Adventurous
- A positive person
- Optimistic
- Calms others around them
Pink
Pink is associated with love, femininity, and playfulness, although pink is also considered an immature colour. Therefore, people will notice pink in a lot of toy packaging. For example, brands such as (Victoria’s Secret) have indicated the colour to mean something sexy, fun, cute, and active.
Pink Personality Traits:
- Playful
- Fun
- A little naive
- Family and love are the most important to you
Black – Colour Psychology
Black is associated with many things: mystery, power, boldness, and uniqueness. But it also means sadness, grief, pain, unhappiness, and darkness. Black is often associated with mourning and death and can also be associated with luxury, intensity, and strength.
Personality traits of the Colour Black:
- Risk-taker
- Impulsive at times
- Serious
- Bold
- A little intimidating
- Trustworthy
White
White in Western cultures is associated with purity. White relates to hospitals and weddings, and often it signifies order, purity, and cleanliness. Brands will often add a bit of the colour white to offset more intense colours (like red).
Personality Traits of White:
- Innocent
- Peaceful
- Calm
- A bit naive
- A touch of OCD