When buying this or that thing, for example, clothes or furniture for an apartment, we are constantly faced with the problem of choice. Moreover, we are talking not only about the quality of the thing, but also about its color. Have you ever wondered why one shade seems more attractive to us, and the other does not? Most will answer that they just like the color or that it is beautiful. But some time will pass, and this shade may “stop liking”, preferences will change, and a relatively new thing ceases to please the eye.
This oddity of ours is one of the many manifestations of the peculiarities of color perception, and it is much more important than it seems at first glance. The choice of a particular color can say a lot about:
- personality of a person,
- his character,
- interests,
- emotional state,
- peculiarities of behavior.
Color preference phenomenon
The fact that the color environment affects our psyche and even the physical state has been known for a long time, even representatives of the most ancient religious cults used color to create a certain mood. But a person’s preference for a particular color has long been explained by fashion, cultural traditions, or simply by peculiarities of taste. No wonder there is a saying that “there are no comrades for taste and color.”
Only in the middle of the 20th century, the phenomenon of color preference began to be seriously studied by psychologists and physiologists. The interest in this problem was purely practical and related to the needs of large firms producing consumer goods. They were preoccupied with both the most attractive advertising colors for buyers and the color of the bright selling packaging. It was then that it became clear that the same color can both attract and repel different people, and this depends little on their age, profession and social status.
The connection between color preference and individual personality traits of a person was one of the first to be identified and studied by a psychologist from Switzerland Max Luscher. The result of his research was a color personality test, which allows one to determine the psychological characteristics of a person based on his choice of the most and least attractive colors for him.
This technique has been actively used by both foreign and domestic psychologists for more than half a century, and there is nothing mystical about it. The connection between character and favorite color has been confirmed not only by scientists, but also by thousands of people who have passed the test.
Personality colors
We are able to distinguish more than 120 colors and thousands of their shades, and, of course, it is unrealistic to establish a connection between individual personality traits and each of them. For example, yellow has both warm and cold shades, and the difference in the perception of yellow-lime and gray-yellow is even greater than in relation to pure yellow and orange.
Therefore, creating his personality test, M. Luscher took only spectral or pure colors of saturated shades. And there are not 120, but only 8:
- grey,
- black,
- Red,
- blue,
- yellow,
- green,
- Brown,
- Violet.
But if your favorite color was not among them, then you can choose the most attractive of these eight, all the same, the rest of the colors in one way or another are combinations of the three basic ones: red, blue and yellow.
Choosing your favorite color
Luscher’s research was continued by psychologists and psychophysiologists from different countries. Now a lot of factual material has been accumulated, and we can confidently say that the choice of the most attractive color allows a lot to be said about a person.
Yellow
Preferred by agile, cheerful, sociable and slightly frivolous people. They strive for freedom and focus on the future. We can say that they live in anticipation of a joyful event and think little about pressing problems – everything will somehow settle by itself. But lonely people who are disappointed in life, in friendship and love reject the yellow color. He annoys and disgusts them.
Red and orange colors
They are liked by active, active, purposeful individuals with the potential of a leader. Red is often chosen by women who are focused on their sexual role and are in an active search for a life partner. Those who prefer red have a strong will and stubborn character, they are demanding of themselves and others, and often cruel. Red and orange colors are unpleasant for tired and sick people with low vitality.
Green
The color of stubborn and even stubborn workaholics, enthusiastic people in love with their work. A person who prefers green is confident in his strengths and abilities and seeks to prove it to everyone in the world. He not only “burns at work”, but also wants the recognition of his merits from the society. And those who dislike green reject society, considering it an overwhelming force. These people are characterized by both resentment and guilt.
Blue
They are chosen by those who want to enjoy serene peace and idleness. They are focused on the circle of close people, for them family, loved one and friends are the highest value. For those who rely only on themselves and do not trust anyone, blue is unpleasant.
Violet
The color of people overflowing with internal contradictions, and he himself is a mixture of two opposite energies: active red and passive blue. This color is chosen by adolescents who are acutely experiencing a crisis of their age, people prone to mysticism, and homosexuals. Purple is also rated positively by those who have a penchant for introspection and philosophizing.
Brown
Warm and cozy, and it attracts people who value convenience and comfort most of all, calm quiet evenings on a comfortable sofa, delicious food, leisurely interesting work and communication with loved ones. But too active individuals, inclined to demonstrativeness, striving for popularity and fame, brown is unpleasant.
Black
Always associated with denial. The person who prefers him is a negativist or, as they would say in the 19th century, a nihilist. He does not accept the world in which he lives, the business that he is forced to do, and often himself. “Black is the absolute border where life ends. Therefore, black expresses the idea of ”nothing”, – wrote M. Luscher. Most people who choose bright colors reject black.
Grey
They are chosen by people who seek to isolate themselves from experiences, or simply indifferent, not interested in the vivid manifestations of life, passive or very tired.
The choice of one color or another testifies to certain personality traits, but what is the reason for the color preference itself? Why do we often strive to surround ourselves with things of a certain color, carefully choosing the shades that best suit our taste? Is it all about taste here?
Four-color man
In ancient India, there was a belief that the human soul is woven from musical sounds and light streams of four colors, therefore a harmonious person was called “tejasi” – luminiferous. The streams of light that make up the soul are painted in different colors, the combination of which creates a unique, inimitable personality.
Studies of the relationship between color and psyche, which were carried out throughout the 20th century, confirmed the validity of the guesses of the ancient sages. A person really strives for that color, the energy of which he lacks for complete harmony. M. Luscher speaks about this in his theory of the “four-color person” or four color types of people.
What is a color type
The color type is not at all the color scale of a person’s appearance, but the features of the manifestation of his character, depending on color preferences.
When creating the color of our surroundings, for example, buying furniture for an apartment or clothes, we unconsciously choose those colors, the energy of which we lack to feel inner harmony.
It is difficult to achieve complete harmony, since the choice of color is associated not only with the mood and physiological state of the body, but also with the character, goals of activity, needs, attitudes and the cultural color code learned from childhood.
Personality colors: characteristic of color types
There are 4 main color types, corresponding to red, yellow, green and blue colors. And each of these colors is associated with a certain personality quality that dominates the character of a person, depending on what type he belongs to.
- Red – self-confidence and self-confidence.
- Blue – a sense of satisfaction with oneself and the world.
- Yellow – a sense of inner freedom.
- Green – a sense of self-sufficiency and self-esteem.
Choosing one of these colors, we strive to make up for the lack of this or that quality. It is this color that we lack for the feeling of inner harmony.
A person who harmoniously manifests himself in all four areas is “a person who feels happy, who perceives everything much more intensely and who finds life extraordinarily interesting.” (M. Lusher)
These four colors correspond to the four main types of temperament.
- The melancholic is green.
- Choleric is red.
- Phlegmatic is blue.
- The sanguine is yellow.
Psychologists argue that there are no pure types of temperament, each individual combines the characteristics of a melancholic, a phlegmatic, and a sanguine person, only they are presented to varying degrees. Also, there are no people of the same color, we have particles of all color types, although most often the properties of one of the colors prevail. Based on this, people can be attributed to the red, blue, yellow or green type.
The color type is not rigidly set, it can change, just as the person himself, his needs, interests, goals of life change. In addition, M. Luscher believed that in different spheres of life, a person can demonstrate different color types. For example, manifesting himself as a red color type in business, in communicating with friends, a person behaves in accordance with the yellow type.
