Color psychological response

Color only exists in the brain of the viewer, it is a psychological response to a physical stimulus (i.e., it cannot be measured with an instrument). 

To understand how we respond to color it is necessary to look outside the field of engineering. In the field of psychology, there are countless books, technical papers, and research studies. There is even a field known as color psychology. One of the best known books is Color and Human Response [6], by the color consultant Faber Birren. 

The considerable increase in demand for colored pigments over the last three decades is in response to a number of external factors, primarily of a psychological nature. Advertising effectiveness and product promotion have become increasingly dependent on the public attention value of colored materials. On the other hand, both industry and the private sector show an ever increasing tendency to color products for identification and differentiation purposes. 

Shapiro, D. "A Perceptual Understanding of Color Response." In Rickers-Ovsiankina, M. R. (ed.) Rorschach Psychology. New York Wiley, i960, pp. 154-201. 

The psychology of color preferences has been a subject of interest to many students of human behavior and much work has been published in the area. The book by Birren details studies on various aspects of human response to color [18]. A recent article by Crozier also gives a summary of the work in this area [19]. It appears that the only common conclusion from these studies is that the color blue has a universal appeal even across a variety of cultmres. Other than a weaker agreement on a dislike of yellow, very little consistency is found for color preferences in these various studies, although there is evidence for differing responses to color based on age, gender, and culture. 

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