He yellow color Has a meaning and psychology related to vitality, warmth, energy, light and creativity. The word"yellow"comes from Old English geolu,"geolwe"meaning"yellow.
Yellow is often described as an optimistic, life-affirming color that reminds us of sunlight and stimulates our mind, body and emotions.
The effect of the yellow color varies with the intensity and the tonality. A pale and atmospheric tone of yellow can add joy to the mood, while a saturated or intense one can make us feel in a bad mood after a while.
Yellow is the color between green and orange in the spectrum of visible light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength of about 570-590 nm.
The word yellow comes from the old English"geolu", derived from the proto-Germanic word gelwaz, that means"yellow".
According to surveys in Europe, Canada and the United States, yellow people often associate yellow with fun, sweetness and spontaneity, but also with duplicity, envy, jealousy, avarice and, in the United States, with the cowardice.
In Iran it has connotations of pallor and disease, but also of wisdom and connection. In Asian culture it plays an important role, particularly in China, where it is seen as the color of happiness, glory, wisdom, harmony, and culture.
Positive meanings of yellow color
- Yellow elevates our spirit. A person surrounded by yellow is more optimistic because the brain releases more Serotonin (The pleasure chemical in the brain).
- In our relationships brings us good humor and joy. It also creates a climate of trust and communication In our environment.
- At work it is useful for the creativity , The generation of new ideas, as well as being in motion and in constant action.
- In studies it stimulates our mental faculties, activating the left side of the brain. Therefore, this color helps us to focus and remember information, which is very useful during the exam time.
- Using yellow in clothing or in cars helps us to avoid accidents, because it is the most visible of all colors and the one that most impacts the human eye.
Negative meanings of yellow color
- As a color that inspires speed and dynamism, it can also lead us to make impulsive decisions.
- Although yellow is a cheerful color, studies show that in large quantities it tends to create feelings of frustration and anger, so people are more likely to lose their stirrups in a yellow interior. Babies also seem to cry more in rooms with yellow walls.
- Because it is more related to the left side of the brain, it is a color that tends to disconnect from the emotional aspects of the right side of the brain.
Psychology and Curious Yellow Data
- If you are going through many changes in your life that cause you stress , You may not be able to tolerate the yellow color very well as it is a color too fast for you right now.
- Researcher David H. Alman showed in a study that day and night the response of the eye to yellow is strong, which allows a faster reaction in people. So many cities have begun to paint their yellow fire trucks.
- McDonalds, Wendy, and Burger King added the yellow color to their logos and outside their stores because this color transmits energy and speed, which communicates to the consumer that they are fast and efficient.
- There is a"Yellow Dress Day"in Oxford that began in 2011 as a day of awareness. It was sponsored by the"Bike Ride Mississippi,"a non-profit bicycle promotion organization across the state.
- In a study conducted by the University of Georgia in 2004, the card most easily recalled was yellow.
Meanings of yellow in other cultures
Colors have different meanings in different places.
- In Japan yellow means courage and nobility.
- At Islam Yellow means wisdom.
- At Hinduism , The divinity of Krishna is commonly portrayed in yellow. Yellow and saffron are also the colors used by Sadhu, or by sacred men wandering around India.
- Buddhist monks wear yellow saffron robes, which were chosen by Buddha For himself and his followers in the 5th century BC. The tunic and its color is a sign of renunciation of the outside world and commitment to order.
- In ancient Greece, some gods were represented with yellow hair, and men bleached their hair or hours spent in the sun to turn it yellow. However, in medieval Europe and later, yellow often had negative connotations; So the yellow hair was more poetically called 'blond' 'light', 'or' golden '.
- In many countries of the Middle East yellow represents prosperity.
- In Egypt yellow is reserved for mourning.
- In India it is a color frequently used by merchants.
- For Native Americans yellow is the symbol for unconditional love
- In China they have given a predominance to the yellow color not seen in other parts of the world. It was the color of the emperors both during the Ming Dynasty and in the Qing Dynasty.
- In many European universities, members of the faculty of physical sciences wear yellow dresses, because yellow represents reason and research.
Curious stories about color psychology
- At the University of Iowa in the United States, they painted the pink team's dressing room: the cupboards with a dusty rose, the pink shower curtains and even the urinals chose them pink. The color was chosen by former football coach Hayden Fry who had read that pink has a calming effect on people. However, the gesture was not very well received by the visitors, who saw it as a joke because it was a color categorized as feminine, and caused them the opposite effect - agitation.
- One bank found that its ranks moved faster by increasing the use of red color in its lobby, and in a study of several hundred college students, one researcher found that they respond more quickly to red-light signals than to green .
- Kuller in 1976, conducted a study on the effects of color on men and women in two opposing environments. He asked six men and six women to stay in two rooms, one was very colorful, while the other was gray and sterile. The results showed that heart rates were faster in the gray room than in the colorful room, but also that men had more anxious reactions than women, unable to achieve the same degree of mental relaxation.
- The reporter Jeannie Mai says that when she worked for the Extra program, she sometimes had to interview celebrities known to be"distant", so she used a soft yellow color in her dress and always ended up being one of her best encounters. "The yellow color creates a very open atmosphere with people,"he confessed.
Yellow color and children
The Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Granada in Spain, conducted in 2003 a study on how to use color theory in children between 4 and 5 years of age, so that they will have significant learning.
Its objective was to introduce the concepts related to the expressive attributes of color and the mixing of the primary colors to turn them into secondary colors.
Children had to be motivated to adopt a reflexive and critical attitude towards the content they offered them, relating them to their previous cognitive development and to their own personal experience. Taking into account the inclination of the children to play to be princes, princesses and gentlemen, they decided to use this tendency for that study.
First, they told the story"The Knights' shirts"and then they drew what had happened in the story. They then made the clothes that the knights took with crafts and finally performed in a play with the main characters of the story.
With this study, the researchers concluded on the need to allow children to analyze the meaning of colors from earlier ages and in a way that they can actually assimilate. Somehow they questioned the way in which such learning was done in schools to date.
The story"The Knights' Shirt"
"There were once three gentlemen who always liked to be very well dressed. One of them was called"Red Knight". You know why? Because it was all red: his clothes, his face, his hands, his shoes... all of it was red.
He was the most dangerous of all the knights and had to be very careful with him because he was always very, very nervous. But you know what? The Red Knight was always in love! He even fell in love with flying flies, even though he was known as the most dangerous knight in the area.
And did you know that the Red Knight had a friend? It was called"Yellow Knight". He liked to be his friend because he was a very cheerful person - though a bit nervous as he was.
People said that Yellow Knight had a great fortune, but he never talked about it. But you know what? Wherever they went and no matter what time of year it was, they were always complaining about the heat.
These two knights were also fellow"Blue Knight". They called him that because it was all blue, even the mustache was blue. The Blue Knight always complained of the cold and helped the Red Knight to calm down when it was a bundle of nerves.
But you know what? The Blue Knight was always crying, only the Red Knights and the Yellow Knight could cheer him up with his happiness and his jokes. And do you know why she cried? Because he knew that one day he would have to leave his friends, and as he was a very sincere person, he would show his sadness and feelings all the time.
A drawing of Alexander (4 years old) after hearing the story of the knights.
One day, the day Blue dreaded came. The three knights had to go their separate ways. And that day, even the Red Knight let a tear fall from his face.
Before leaving, the gentlemen decided to give each other something that would always remind them of the happy days they had spent together. They decided to give each other their clothes: The Red Knight gave his red shirt to the Blue Knight, the latter gave his shirt to the Yellow Knight, and Yellow gave his to Red Knight. And you know what happened when they wore the shirts?
When the Blue Knight put on his friend's shirt, the red color of the shirt mixed with the blue of his own body, turned into a purple shirt.
And when Yellow Knight put on the blue shirt of his friend, the shirt turned green. And when Red Knight put on the yellow shirt of his friend, the shirt turned into an orange shirt.
And so the three gentlemen went their own way, with a sense of happiness that a part of each of them had mingled with the colors of their friends.