Colours (factual)

Colours are everywhere. Colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, blue, yellow, etc. Everything has a colour to represent. In fact, colour theories create a logical structure for colour. For example, if we have an assortment of fruits and vegetables, we can organize them by colour and place them on a circle that shows the colours in relation to each other. A colour circle, based on red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the field of art. Colour pretty much existed ever since the whole universe began and plays a part in everyone’s daily life.

According to various international studies, the world’s most popular colour is blue. Based on the survey conducted by several global marketing firms, they’ve concluded that people worldwide picked blue as their favourite colour followed by purple. Though, some researchers also suggest that red and green are a close second and third respectively. White, orange, and yellow are some of the least favourite colours. Other than that, recent studies have shown that infants as young as 2 weeks of age can already distinguish the colour red. Probably because red has the longest wavelength among colours making it the easiest colour to process by the developing receptors and nerves in the baby’s eyes.

Another eye-opening fact is that men and women may see the world differently in terms of colours. For example, woman may see crimson, burgundy, and tomato red while men just see the colour red. Neuroscientists have discovered that women are better at distinguishing among subtle distinctions in colour, while men appear more sensitive to objects moving across their field of vision. Scientists have long maintained that the sexes see colours differently. But much of the evidence has been indirect, such as the linguistic research showing that women possess a larger vocabulary than men for describing colours. Experimental evidence for the vision thing has been rare.

Colours have also been known to affect our taste receptors when eating or drinking from coloured utensils. Recent discovery shows that colours affect the way we taste foods. For instance, an orange or cream-colored cup definitely makes chocolate taste better than in any other cup with a different colour. However, in some situations, a cross over from one pathway to the other occurs. Seeing the colour yellow-green may evoke taste sensations of sourness; pink may evoke sweetness. Seeing the colour grey may evoke olfactory sensations of smokiness. To give the impression of a certain taste, flavour, or quality, food colouring or dyes are added to processed, packaged, and even fresh foods. Adding a red colorant to the skin of an apple, for example, may influence consumers into believing the apple is sweeter in taste.

Lastly, a perplexing questions still remains, what came first, the orange fruit or the orange colour? Just like the eternal question between the egg and the chicken, the orange shares the same mystery. But according to studies, the word “orange” appears in the English language as early as the 13th century referring to the fruit. The colour orange was initially called Geoluhread which means yellow-red. The word's use as a colour name doesn't crop up for another 200 years, in the early 1500s. On a related note, it is widely accepted that there is no single English word is a true rhyme for orange.

In conclusion, colours can play different effects, like yellow makes people happy, red makes them angry, blue calms, and so on. Of course there are exceptions and not every person feels the same and gets the same effects from colours. The psychological effects of colour are apparent in everyday life. However, it is important to note that certain colours should not be overused simply for their calming or exciting effects. Colours from a cognitive perspective explain many of life's occurrences and can further help researches explore the processes of learning, decision making, reasoning, judgment, and many other mind processes.