04-10-2019

Navy, pink and turquoise are the colors most associated with relaxation

Earth.com staff writer

Take a minute and picture your favorite color. Does that color remind you of a happy memory or make you feel a particular emotion?

These are the kind of questions wrapped up in the field of color psychology as researchers work to understand our complex relationship and connection to different colors.

The paper company, G.F Smith, is taking this research to the next level and has conducted a comprehensive report centered around one main idea: is it possible to find a color that perfectly encapsulates our current global culture and society?

In other words, G.F Smith along with the University of Sussex are on a mission to find the world’s favorite color.

The World’s Favorite Colour report includes survey responses from 25,596 people from over 100 countries as the researchers worked to find color connections that cross cultures and countries.

Participants in the project were asked about their favorite color and what words they associated with that particular color. Anna Franklin, an expert in color psychology and a professor at the University of Essex led the research.

Some of the most common words that people associate with their favorite colors were “happy,” “calm,” “bright,” and “vibrant.”

The researchers found that certain colors had universal appeal in terms of how they made people feel and what emotions they elicited.

For example, people tend to link red, blue and orange shades with strength, but dark blue, pink, and turquoise were associated with calmness.

Image Credit: G.F. Smith/University of Sussex

Green was connected to the feeling people get when they think about the future and luxury was associated with purples and whites.

“Colour has always had an intrinsic relationship with our culture and is woven into our consciousness,” G.F Smith Joint Managing Director John Haslam, the G.F Smith Joint Managing Director stated in the report. “The fascinating results and their relevance are shared in the report — inspiring the world to think differently about the role and value of colour in our lives.”