No, this is not piece of written erotica and no, I am not actually going to cover the emotional effects of fifty different colours.

More like ten. I will endeavour to discuss the emotional symbolism of colours by grouping them in the following categories: Cools, Warms, and Neutrals.

Cool

Blue

The colour blue is one often associated with sadness, solitude, or mourning. It does this in part by the human association with blue as the colour of ice and coldness, which typically implies the lack of other people around to provide body heat. For this reason also, blue is the colour of calmness, peace, and contemplation, as a cold environment usually results in a decrease in available food and heat, prompting animals to either go into hibernation or some other state of decreased activity in order to conserve energy. Blue, prior to the nineteenth century, was the colour traditionally associated with femininity (with pink or red associated with masculinity), but it is a colour more commonly associated with masculinity today.

Green

The colour green is one commonly associated with life, neutrality or agreeability, growth, youth, jealousy, and toxicity or illness. This is due to many natural spaces being tinted by the green of plant chlorophyll. The green was particularly pronounced, and perhaps welcome, in parts of the world which experienced harsh winters, as it signified the arrival of Spring and renewed availability of food and comfortable temperatures. Many games, for example, use green to indicate health meters, and electronics usually use green as the sign of proper functioning. On the flip side, green also came to signify illness and evil as green paint used to be made of highly toxic minerals, and in general, green as a tint on someone’s skin is highly unnatural and is usually a sign of nausea or infection. Green was popularised as the colour of jealousy after Shakespeare famously wrote of ‘the green-eyed monster’ in Othello. Green was also the colour of sexuality and carnal desire in some cultures.

Purple

Purple is a colour associated with mystery and/or artificiality, ambiguity, royalty and abundance, and (when lightened to pink) sensuality and sexuality. Purple is a colour that occurs with some of the lowest frequencies in the natural world and was also one of the first synthetic dyes (as opposed to having a natural mineral or plant base). As such it was quite expensive and was worn frequently by Roman emperors as a sign of their royalty. This tradition has been further continued by the Christian church in Western societies, where priests, popes, and bishops often wore purple for certain occasions, extending the meaning of purple to possibly encompass spirituality as well (and also associating the church with royalty). It’s ambiguity stems from its position as a midway point between the quintessential warm and cool colours: red and blue.

Warm

Red

Red is a colour that catches the attention. To that end it has taken up many different connotations, and is perhaps the colour we associate the most meaning to. That humans find red to be such an eye-catching colour has it pegged at the extremes of every spectrum, from safety to danger, love to hate, joy to rage, freedom to tyranny, femininity to masculinity, good to evil. It also has associations to courage, bravery, dynamism, and ceremony.

Orange

Orange, second only to red, is a highly visible and noticeable colour. As the direct complementary colour to blue, it is the colour of choice for life vests, astronaut suits, ‘black boxes’, or anything at all that should need to be identified quickly and easily against a blue or black background. It is also the colour commonly associated with happiness, merriment, gaiety, and the Greek god Dionysus (the party god). It also carries certain connotations of stupidity and frivolity because of this. Orange also has a strong association to Hindu and Buddhist monks, as their robes are primarily or wholly dyed shades of yellow-orange collectively known as saffron.

Yellow

Of the three warm colours, yellow is the least attention grabbing. Coupled with its easy visibility over long distances, yellow is usually the colour of warning (but not serious danger). It is also associated with light, and so is represents wisdom, enlightenment, and happiness. However it has also been associated with sickness and cowardice, as in the phrase ‘yellow-bellied’. As gold has a yellow colour, yellow has also come to be associated with prosperity, treasures, and valuables, and blond – or ‘golden-haired’ – people in Western cultures came to be seen as particularly ideal or noble.

Neutrals

Brown

Brown, a colour sometimes grouped as either cool or warm depending upon the hue, is often linked to poverty, humility, nature, and health. Due to the pigment’s easy availability and natural abundance, those who wore brown were seen as simple and humble, or even plebeian and unclean. Things wrapped in brown paper were considered unimportant or utilitarian. Foods, such as rice and sugar, that are brown are perceived to be healthier than their polished white counterparts. Brown eyes and hair is seen as signs of someone who is more serious and down-to-earth, or someone who is unimportant and plays no significant role (especially against a more colourful cast of characters). Having an abundance of the colour in nature, brown-dyed military uniforms became very common as they were easy to produce en-mass and also provided excellent camouflage in wooded or desert landscapes.

White

White has come to mean, most commonly, innocence and purity. It has also come to be associated with ghosts, spirits, and the paranormal, as dead bodies begin to take on a white pallor over time. White has therefore been used in various cultures as a sign of mourning and grief, and yet in others as a sign of celebration, particularly that of weddings. Objects that are supposed to be clean, such as toilets and sinks, are usually made in white or highly polished metals. White is also the colour of snow and ice, together with its implications of cleanliness, can convey ideas of sterility and passive hostility.

Grey

A colour between black and white, grey is a colour used often in cases of uncertainty, as in ‘a morally grey issue’. Ageing things also either turn grey or brown, and so grey can hold connotations of age, wisdom, and introspection, but also boredom, inactivity, and depression. As undyed wool was an interminable grey shade, it became known as the clothes of the peasantry, humble people, and hard work. Business suits and spaces for the pursuit of sciences and higher studies are typically predominated by the colour grey to convey an air of seriousness and professionalism.

Black

Black has many negative connotations. As the opposite of white, it usually held as the ‘evil’ side of a good versus evil dichotomy. As the colour of deep night, humans have long associated black with mysteries and the unknown, which inevitably extended its meaning to that of fear and loathing. People who work ‘in shadow’ (such as spies, or even night shift workers) are usually considered to be untrustworthy, morally dubious, and socially maladjusted. It has also come to be the colour of power and solemnity, it is not uncommon for professionals to wear black suits and for utilitarian spaces and furniture to feature largely in black. Black is also the colour associated with elegance and formality, featuring heavily in fashion and worn frequently by performers, also birthing the term ‘black-tie event’ to describe extremely formal events with strict dress codes. As such, many militaries have also taken up black as a staple uniform colour, particularly for higher ranking officers. The Nazi Schutzstaffel infamously wore uniforms entirely in black, designed by Hugo Boss to appear attractive, sleek, fashionable, intimidating, and powerful.