Professor explores the great power of colors on our feelings and communication

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By: Susanne Stockmann

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Colors have a much stronger effect on our well-being than we think. They send messages to which we react. They affect our emotions and health. Color researcher Prof. Axel Buether says: "The power of colors is clearly underestimated."

The world is becoming more colorful again: in nature and in the closet. In contrast to dogs and cats, who perceive their environment in blue and yellow, the environment looks motley for humans. The photoreceptor cells in the retina of our eyes can tell the difference between an incredible 20 million colors. This not only creates particularly pretty images in our heads, but also has a function that we are hardly aware of: whether red, blue, green or white - such signals are important means of communication. Colors send messages that we intuitively perceive and to which we react. Colors influence our feelings and health, living together in private and success at work. professor dr Axel Buether researches how colors work, he says: "The power of colors is clearly underestimated."

Colors never work on their own

When Professor Buether is asked how this particular color works, he takes a deep breath: "There is no such thing as a single color effect." Because Colors by themselves don't mean much at first. A newborn baby associates nothing with the colors of its surroundings. Only gradually do people perceive the light intensity and register whether they live in a green area or in the city. All the colors of the environment become familiar and eventually form a color home. Shades acquire meaning, they trigger emotions. Someone who grew up in nature has different emotions about white and gray tones than a city dweller. Buether: "We can already see differences between people in northern and southern Germany." In addition, some meanings - such as attention to red - are innate, or their interpretation has been culturally shaped over the centuries.

In an incredible amount of hard work, Professor Buether photographed millions of everyday objects, sorted them by color and looked at which colors are used in which context and what we associate with them. Buether: “For each color we were able to form four clusters with four basic meanings. You can see at first glance that these meanings are sometimes totally contradictory!” Green can be very toxic or reflect health. Red is a warning signal up to murder and manslaughter or the color of love. The meanings of the colors come first from the environment, they are culturally influenced, in addition, every person has an individual color homeland, which in turn determines how we perceive color tones - the effect of the colors, their mysterious power, only arises in the interaction of all these factors.

Whoever wears red likes attention. If you prefer black, you avoid the risk

Dr. Buether asked people to arrange their clothes by color and lay them out in a color circle. Buether: "It's amazing how precisely you can read character traits and also milieu affiliation from these color circles." If someone likes to wear light tones, they are probably more open, a communicative person. Anyone who bets on red has nothing against attention. If there is a lot of black hanging in the closet, the owner is probably more conservative, he doesn't want to reveal too much about himself and doesn't want to take any risks. This person is rather aloof, but wants to come across as serious or artistic. When the university lecturer stands in front of the students in a pink shirt, he wants to appear communicative and open and hopes for a lively discussion. Children are often dressed in very colorful clothes. Buether: "It's supposed to express happiness, but it's the parents who choose the children's clothes, and that's more how mothers and fathers express their idea of ​​being a child."

Clothes also have a group character. If suddenly all the men in the company are wearing light blue shirts, it could be that they are looking for cover in the group. Buether: "Camouflage is also a function of color."

Anyone who stands in front of their closet and can't find anything to wear has fallen into the classic trap of not having thought about the occasion when shopping. Buether: "When we get dressed, we always think about how we want to appear." Lucky are those who have clothes that can be easily combined. So the gray suit for showing up, but the pink shirt as a sign of individuality and creativity, or the yellow scarf as an indication of good humor and happiness.

Expert tip: That's why you should tear down the white-painted woodchip wallpaper

The color scheme of the rooms in which we stay also has a major influence on well-being. Buether's advice for your own four walls: "Down with the white-painted woodchip wallpaper, which gives the white an unpleasant touch. If it's white, then it's more likely to be on smooth walls.” However, white as a light color does not invite you to lean against it, it has a cool and unbounded effect and therefore has nothing homely about it. But: "Toned white tones are fantastic," says Buether. Just stir in a bit of sandy color. “Then we get a natural surface that we know from stones, wood or sand. But curry tones or loamy ocher tones are also wonderful colors that make us feel good.”

Color expert Buether conducted tests in retirement homes and hospitals and asked how people would like to live or work. In hospitals, the use of medicines by patients could be demonstrably reduced by changing the choice of color, which expressed optimism, well-being and homeliness. The nurses were significantly less ill and overall more satisfied with their work. Buether: "Results like this are amazing every time."

The researcher of colors

Prof. dr Axel Buether teaches at the university in Wuppertal, he is chairman of the German Color Center, the central institute for color in science and design. Book tip: Prof. Dr. Axel Buether, The Mysterious Power of Colors, Droemer-Verlag, 25 €

Red is the most powerful color, why?

Dr. Axel Buether: In the center of the retina, the point of sharpest vision, there are primarily red-sensitive photoreceptor cells. This is the color that we see very consciously and sharply. If something is red, our eyes immediately fall on it, be it the warning sign, a red tie or painted lips. The color attracts maximum attention because it is associated with blood, with power, but also with sexual attractiveness. We can't help but look there.

So whoever wears red wants to get attention?

Buether: You're automatically the center of attention and that's not for everyone. Although I sometimes buy myself red sweaters, I very rarely wear one. They always stay in the closet. I obviously don't want to get that attention. Which doesn't mean that I'm now hiding as a gray mouse. Because of course I want to appear communicative and open-minded. Then I choose a colored shirt, for example.

Is this how these inexplicable bad buys come about? Because you were in a mood that day, wanted to radiate something in a certain way that you can't identify with later?

Buether: Exactly, even if you really like a color, you may not want to wear it because you don't feel comfortable with the message that garment conveys.

Clothing color reflects my personality, if I want to change can I start with the clothes?

Buether: We know it: After a breakup, women go to the hairdresser and dye their hair, others renovate the apartment and paint the walls, men in the mid-life crisis put on more youthful, more colorful clothes. You send signals to the environment: I'm attractive, I'm communicative, I'm vital. But if you don't live the new sides of your personality, but fall back into old patterns, these colors also disappear again.

Ultimately you have to feel comfortable with the colors you wear. You talk about gut feelings.

Buether: These are intuitive decisions and since very few people know how colors work, this is the most important guide. But I can only advise dealing with the power of colors in order to understand what needs and emotions they arouse in us. Because the advertising industry is of course very familiar with these messages: We buy something because the packaging promises us pleasure and health. Who checks the sugar content of a product in a nice green package or doubts that recycled cardboard is valuable food? There's a reason the food industry rejects the nutritional traffic light: when people see red, they leave the item on the shelf!

A little color theory

Red attracts the most attention and the strongest emotion. The reddening of skin or lips, for example, is hormonally controlled and perceived as a signal of fertility. Men find women twice as attractive when their photo has a red background instead of white. Waitresses with red lipstick get significantly more tips. Anyone who wears red signals a claim to leadership to the environment. This also makes it the ideal symbol color for rebellions. Red signals readiness for conflict. Therefore, red is effective in prohibition signs.

Blue: We don't intuitively trust any color anymore. It often stands for certainty, correctness and truth. Wherever our trust is advertised, blue is the perfect background (insurance, news formats..) Blue is the ideal symbolic color for peace. (UNO or Unicef) and also stands for desires, hopes and dreams. The sight of a blue sky or the sea has a liberating and relaxing effect. If you want to widen narrow corridors, you should paint walls and ceilings blue. But be careful: these rooms appear cooler. Blue tones can be warmed up if they have been tinted with red, orange, yellow or violet.

Green: The green spectrum is our largest color space, encompassing over half of all visible hues. The colors of plant nature were the basis for the development of our sense of sight. It is the symbolic color of the natural, growing and alive and also means hope and new beginnings in many cultures. Green is in maximum contrast to red. Where red signals injury and death, green represents health and life.

Yellow is recognized around the world as a happy color and a symbol of good luck, due to the emotional effects of sunlight. Yellow looks likeable, young and full of life. In marketing, yellow is therefore used for products for the young or young-at-heart audience. Yellow conveys the impression of health, dynamism and active joie de vivre. But any contamination or turbidity causes the magic of the color to wear off.

White has a claim to perfection and was originally a sacred colour. Now she symbolizes the sciences, but also stands for purity, cleanliness, flawlessness (wedding dress). The color is often used to identify professions, products in the food and health industries. White appears weightless, making it the ideal symbolic color of mobility and the preferred paint color for planes, rockets and cars.

Black represents evil, false and ugly. In almost all cultures, evil shuns the light and seeks the dark. The light-dark effect, e.g. in painting, has a dramatic effect. Anyone who wears black clothing increases the emotional impact of facial expressions and gestures, as the focus is more on the face and hands. Political and business leaders flaunt their importance with black tailor-made suits and black limousines. If you want to be seen as self-confident, intelligent, trustworthy and creative on the first date and job interviews, you can hardly avoid black. Black makes us appear more mysterious and significantly slimmer.

Brown is the symbol of the earth and stands for safety, stability and reliability. When white began its triumphant advance in modern cities, brown mutated into a rural-conservative color and became a sign of backwardness. From down-to-earth to backward, from simple to narrow-minded, from tradition-conscious to stuffy and intolerant, it is often just a small step.

Read more about colors and their effects in homes here.

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