Seeing Red :: Vision Psychology Essays

Seeing Red Humans receive about 70-80% of information about their surroundings from sight. uncover this in mind, it is clear that for humans, being able to see the environment in which we live can greatly determine how we interact with that environment. For people (as well as for other animals, although not all), color is an important component of sight. Socially, color is extremely important. For example, ruby-red, green, and yellow atomic number 18 all used in directing traffic. Stoplights and signs are red a green light indicates that it is safe to proceed. Yellow symbolizes the need for caution, orange alerts drivers to construction. While all these signs could be executed in black and white (for the write messages would be the same), color is used to help drivers tell the difference between types of messages. Color usage in society is not limited to driving advertising, nurture buildings, offices, etc. use color theory. Color theory is the idea that colors can influenc e people, and that different colors produce different reactions. A wad of people would agree that different colors mean different things or cause different moods, but cannot say exactly why or how. The answers are fuzzy to say the least. One of the most widespread ideas is that different colors stand for or signify different things. However, one must keep in mind a basic fact it being that colors often have different symbolic meanings in different cultures. For example, white is the color for weddings in western societies but for funerals in traditional Chinese culture red is associated with rage in America but with happiness in China. In American fashion and decoration, blue is for boys while pink is for girls, which is a symbolic use of color that are not shared by many cultures (6). After axiom roughlything like that, the next question would be does this mean that colors and the moods/reactions that they may (or may not) elicit are culturally constrained, or is there stil l some underlying biological reason for moods/reactions to alter due to color? A site on the server for Cornell University notes, some of these responses seem to be powerful and sanely universal (5). It is interesting to then look at the idea of chromotherapy the use of colored light to heal. In a paper by Owen Demers he writes, This chromotherapy is not a new age idea.