COLORS AND THEIR CHARACTER A PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY BY B. J. KOUWER SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V. 1949Promotor: Pror. Dr F. J. J. Buytenpijk ISBN 978-94-011-8235-5 ISBN 978-94-011-8906-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-8906-4CONTENTS Listor FIGURES ww) XI List or TABLES... XD INTRODUCTION. 54 4 pp pk ed PART I_AN OUTLINE OF PROBLEMS PER- TAINING TO COLOR Chapter 1. THe Naminc OF COLOR IMPRESSIONS. «1. + + 7 A. Color impression and color concept... . - . - 7 B. Color names among various peoples... - - 11 C. The development of colornames ...... - . Chapter 2. STUDIES ON THE EXPERIENCING OF CoLoRS . . 33 A. Color preferences... 0 eee ee ee 33 B. The affective character of color... .. . + - 39 C. Synesthesia.. 6 ee ee ee ee ee AD D. Symbolism and association... 2. 2 ee a. 4 Chapter 3. A Few OBSERVATIONS ON PHENOMENOLOGY. 55 PART II EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH Chapter 1. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE ......-. - 67 Chapter 2. Discussion oF THE REsuLts........ 78 A. Statistical results 2.2... ee ee eee 78 B. Black . 1. ee ee ee ee ee 87 C. White 2. ee ee ee 94 D. Red 2... eee ee ee 102 E. Yellow and Orange ......--..---- 107 F. Blue... ee ee ee ee OS G. Green 122 H. Purple, Brown and Gray . 126 I. Review. 2... 2. 132xi CONTENTS Chapter 3. THE CoLoR CHARACTER APPLIED... . . - ‘A. The expressive function of color... 2... B. The psycho-diagnostic use of color... . . SUMMARY 6 6c ee ee BIBLIOGRAPHY .......: bee ee ‘Appenpix (TABLES A-D) .. 2.22.0 eee NaME INDEX. ©... ee eee ee ee Supject INDEX 2...) ee ee ee List OF FIGURES 1, Schematic representation of the character of red, whiteand yellow. . 2.0.2.2... eee 2. The system of colors, afterGoethe ....... : 3, Frequency distribution of the words attributed to each color. ee ee en List oF TABLES 1. Color words used in the color experiments... . . « 2. Age and sex of the subjects tested with Series 1, If and WL. eee 3. The relative use of the colors in the color experiments . 4. Scheme of the distribution of a single word among the various colors...) ee es 5. Color preference 2 0. ee ee 6. Frequency distribution of a few words with the colors black, purple, brownandgray ..- 2. ee A. The distribution of the words among the colors in the combined Series I, and WI... 2. 0 tae B, The distribution of percentages for each separate color in Series 10. eee ee : ‘The words most frequently combined with each color Spontancous judgments on the colors under Instruction WandIV........--- Lee yo 110 176 69 79 85 127 173 177 178 179INTRODUCTION In everyday life there does not seem to be anything unusual in speaking of the ‘‘character’’ of colors, We may speak of a delicate blue, a vivid red, a lively yellow, a naive green. Colors mean something to us; they have a kind of personality, more or less to be compared with the human personality. The ancient Egyptian word iw for ‘‘color’’ later came to mean also the character of a living being (82, 414). Mantegazza even speaks of the “soul” of a color. A fine example of the intensity with which colors may be experienced is the following quotation from Sartre (204, 25). An artist coming from a café enters the sunlit street: “toutes les couleurs s’étaient allumées en méme temps et lui faisaient féte, comme en 29, c’était le bal de la Redoute, le Carnaval, la Fan- tasia; les gens et les objets s’étaient congestionnés; le violet d'une robe se violacait, Ia porte rouge d’un drugstore tournait au cramoisi, les couleurs battaient 4 grands coups dans les choses, comme des pouls affolés; c’étaient des élancements, des vibrations qui s’enflaient jusqu’a T'explosion.” Here the colors have come to life completely, They crowd in on the observer and on each other: ‘elles s’exaltent ou se détruisent comme s’il s'agissait de realités vivantes” (126, 424). Bachelard calls colors “substantial forces’ and Goethe’s statement that “die Farben sind Thaten des Lichts, Thaten und Leiden’? has become classic. In actual perception the various colors form dynamic elements, which not only register as neutral data but also play an active role in perception: “les qualités ne sont pas tant pour nous des états que des devenirs. Les adjectifs qualitatifs... sont plus pras des verbes que des noms. Rouge est plus prés de rougir que de rougeur” (10, 89). In German some color names can even be used as verbs: “die Colors and their Character It2 INTRODUCTION Baume griinen, der Himmel blaut, der Tag graut”” (64, 95). These expressions do not mean that the trees become green, or that the sky is turing blue (cf. “to redden” = to become red). The trees ave green, the sky is blue, the day és gray. These qualities are here taken by their activity, by their dynamic meaning in perception. In poetry many analogous forms can be found. Of course the use of the concept “character” in this context is purely un-theoretical, without any anthropomorphic impli- cations; nor does it presuppose any “real” life of the colors, or any character or soul such as human beings possess. These words areused only todescribe the impressions made by the colors; they have no value except phenomenally. The objective background is ignored. There is no question of what the colors are, but only of how they appear. ‘Werner (167, 444) calls this aspect of the colors their ‘“phy- siognomy.”” He writes: “die Farben kénnen auch gesichthaft an- geschaut sein; dann ist ‘rot’ beispielsweise nicht die optisch- spektrale Qualitat, sondern etwas anderes, ein Gesicht mit Eigenschaften eines Iebendig brennenden, kraftvoll energischen Ausdrucks.” The direct opposite of the above is the scientific concept of color such as it is used particularly in physics and physiology. ‘Workers in those fields will consider the above examples either as poetic descriptions or as grave inaccuracies of popular usage, inaccuracies carefully to be avoided whenever color is treated scientifically. Natural science seeks only facts which can be established objectively. But the character of color is hardly subject to objective treatment at all. Whenever natural science deals with “color,” it means the color in its most objective sense, divested completely of all its aforementioned, subjective side-meanings. Its ideal is a picture of color which is exactly the same for everybody, without any possibility of individual variations. It strives to arrive at this ideal through study of as many people as possible, by means of statistical analysis and the use of objective registration apparatus. There is no room here for such aspects as “character,” “life,” “soul’’: all these are subject to momentary influences and the personality of the observer.INTRODUCTION 3 Thus far in the study of color the emphasis has been chiefly on the physical and physiological sides of the problem, In almost any one of the specialized studies on color (e.g. 22 or 44) we will find that the major part is devoted to color physics. While there may be a few chapters dealing with the most important physiological theories on color vision, only very few remarks are found about the psychology of color. The latter as a rule are utterly vague and limited'to a few intuitive everyday experiences. A more serious study of the typical psychological meaning of color is an ex- ception. It is to this psychological aspect of color that the present study is devoted: to color as it appears to us, as it is perceived by us. The “subjective” aspect of every color impression is not only accepted, but even made the basis of this study: it is concerned with color only in the fully subjective meaning it has for the observer. Any attempt to relate it to objective facts is avoided. It is considered completely irrelevant whether the color is actually seen or a hallucination, an afterimage or a contrast color; the spectral composition of the color is disregarded. The study deals exclusively with the subjective color impression, its character as. actually perceived. The acceptance of the subjective clement in color does not imply that the treatment, the method of study should also be subjective. It is very well possible to deal with the subjective in a scientifically satisfactory way, arriving at generally acceptable conclusions, The possibility of such a method will be discussed in Part I, chapter 3. Previous studies of the character of color will be reviewed very briefly. Those aspects which are important in connection with the present discussion will be stressed. For a wider historical survey, including a comprehensive review of literature on the subject, the reader is referred to Skard.PART I AN OUTLINE OF PROBLEMS PERTAINING TO COLORCuarTer I THE NAMING OF COLOR IMPRESSIONS A. COLOR IMPRESSION AND COLOR CONCEPT It is impossible to study color psychology without studying the language and its way to indicate colors. The language is such an essential factor in human existence that color preception inevi- tably bears its mark, For not only do color terms develop on the basis of color impressions, but conversely is color perception to a certain extent determined by the color vocabulary. In the following sections the emphasis will be on the color's function in the concrete situation, on its close relationship with all the other factors of that situation. In dealing with a color’s name, however, we must consider the color on its own, apart from any concrete situation, When I call a color ‘‘red,” it is not suf- ficient that I perceive it in a given situation ; in giving it a name I distinguish it in that situation as something sui generis, as the color called “red” per se, In order to name a color it must first be abstracted from the concrete situation. Inrealityacolor is mostly the color of something. 1) In aconcrete situation the color is given as an independent entity; it is a quality of something else, of an object. As Scheler (133, 126) states for example: “Farben und Tone... erscheinen in der ‘na- tiirlichen Anschauung’... nur so weit, als sie fiir... gewisse Be- zichungswahrnehmungen und Gestalten eine bestimmte sym- bolische Leistung iibernehmen, Wir sehen da zunichst ‘Kir- schen’ und héren einen ‘Wagen fahren’ und nur so weit und nur in jenen Einheiten, als Farbe und Ton diese ‘Wahrnehmungen’ vermitteln, gehen sie selbst sekundar in das hier ‘Gegebene’ 1) The problem of the “filmy” colors will not be treated in the present study.8 ‘THE NAMING OF COLOR IMPRESSIONS ein.” Practically color is only important in so far as it indicates something, in so far as it is a /oken of something. The real impor- tance of the red-ness of blood lies in the fact that it indicates the presence of blood. We don’t notice the red color apart from the blood, but in the red we see the Blood. The gray of ominous thunderclouds is not observed as an independent factor, but we see it in so far as it indicates the imminence of a thunderstorm. Color therefore derives its importance from its function of re- presenting something else. 1) This holds true only for the “original” form of perception, the concrete, practical form in which color has not yet been separated from the concrete situation, Whenever the color must be observed and named as an isolated phenomenon, a special attitude must be developed: the process of abstraction has to take place. This is proved strikingly by certain cases of brain injury as a result of which this capacity of abstraction is Jacking. These patients are unable to name a given color. For them only the concrete thing has significance: the thread, the sheet of paper, of which the color is an integral part. For them it is impossible to view the color per se, independent of the object, and therefore to name the color. At best they can compare the object with another. They may call a red thread “cherry-like,” a green one “grass-like” or a blue one “‘violet-like,” but for such a comparison no abstraction of the color is required. There is a direct relation between the impression made by the thread, and that of a cherry, a violet, or grass, and there is no need first to view the color in itself and then, secondarily, to compare it with some object. In the comparisons made above two concrete impressions are com- pared without explicit consideration of the color. However, it would be wrong to think that the abstraction should necessarily be made before the color could be given a name. The abstraction is made with the help of the color name which is the medium through which the color can be lifted from the conerete situation and considered by itself. Only by using the word “red” we can indicate the redness as an independent phe- nomenon, without any reference to the object which happens to possess that color. In nature color as such never appears, and it 1) In many languages the word for “color” ii 15). The Chinese for “color” (sé) means *qualit : form, shape, appearance (107,122 DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS “constancy” make blue such an adequate symbol of faithfulness. In this connection mention is often made of the blue sky, fre- quently invisible through clouds and rainfall and completely obscured at night but nevertheless always reappearing in its original pure blue-ness, This phenomenon, although certainly not the cause of the faithfulness of blue, affords a very striking example of that aspect. The blue color is something to hold on to. Several subjects called it strong, forceful, steadfast, tenacious (19%). In some cases it was even called masculine — in strong contrast with the psychoanalytical conception that blue is strictly feminine. The “masculinity” of blue, however, does not stem from brute, dynamic force, as is the case in red, but rather from ‘moral firmness, from thecapacity to resist every temptation of the instincts. Blue’s force lies chiefly in its “moral integrity.” G. GREEN Green is one of the most inconspicuous, unobtrusive colors. Several subjects in the second part of the experiment had diffi- culty in formulating their conception of its character. Green is self-evident, it is a color which as it were is self-sufficient, it does not thrust itself into the foreground and does not attract special attention. Nor doesit, in the word distribution experiment, play a very important role. It is used almost as infrequently as black. The frequency distribution of the words attributed to green most closely approaches the theoretical curve. An exception should be made, however, for the word nature, and toa certain extent also for naturalness, both of which rather frequently are combined with green (17% of the subjects in their spontaneous judgments qualify green as “natural”). Naturally the explanation is sought immediately in an “associative” rela- tion: plants, leaves, grass, trees are green and convention com- bines “nature” with green because green is nature’s actual color. This motive is certainly of great importance but it does not comprise the color’s full meaning. The relationship between green and nature is not only a contingent one. The green color itself has its typical character which constitutes its marked ‘‘natural’’- ness; the natural is inherent to the character of green. For a long time the question has been debated whether or notDISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS 123 green was a mixture of blue and yellow. Helmholtz, Hering, Wundt and others maintained that green was a primary color, while Goethe and Brentano for example regarded it as a “mix- ture’ of yellow and blue (see 7, 13, 19, 25). The finding of the solution to this problem was greatly hindered by the introduction of arguments which had little or nothing to do with the pheno- menality of green. Some argued that mixing blue and yellow paint results in green paint. Others claimed that the combina- tion of blue and yellow light results in white light and that green therefore could not be a composite color. Neither argument has any value in regard to green as a phenomenal datum; they are both extraphenomenal facts. ‘When we take green in its purely phenomenal value, there is no point in debating whether or not it is a mixture of yellow and blue, for green is both. On one hand it shows many of the charac- teristics of both blue and yellow, but on the other it also has, as the result of the combination of two so heterogeneous colors, its own autonomous nature which is not entirely comprised in the relationship with blue and yellow. Phenomenally it is far from impossible for a color to be a mixture of two others and yet as an individual color to retain its own specific character. A similar situation exists for yellow which is closely related both with red and white. The impressions made by blue as well as by yellow lie in the social sphere, in the sphere of interaction with the environment, Contrary to red — which represents life and dynamics per se — blue and yellow each represent a typical aspect of the intercourse between the individual and his surroundings, Yellow symbolizes the egocentric, domineering aspect of this communion while blue stands for the altruistic, adaptable form. As a trait d’union between these two aspects green might well be regarded as representative of the interaction per se, without any emphasis on either the color or the environment. In green the two opposite tendencies seem to keep each other in balance. The exteriority of yellow and the interiority of blue are blended in an undiffer- entiated whole, centrifugality and centripetality keeping each other in perfect equilibrium. Green does not dominate, but neither does it possess the souplesse of blue. These aspects of levelness and effortlessness make green the124 DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS color of nature par excellence. The naturalness of green lies in this tensionless interaction, this elementary process of well- balanced give and take. Indeed it could be said that the green color itself has an aspect of vegetation. The same situation prevails — phenomenally —in the green color as in the natural vegetation it symbolizes: interiority and exteriority are integral factors in a circular process in which each factor is adapted to the other, modulating and compensating each other. The above explains why green should also be the color of repose; it is calm, well-balanced, harmonious, stable, soft, bene- ficial (29%). Mettve au vert for example means to give a rest, In the shape of an olive branch green is also used as the color of ‘peace. Evidently all the foregoing tends to make green a rather in- conspicuous color. And indeed it is a typical background color and intermediate color. It performs its function without dominating its environments but also without ever entirely becoming part of them, One subject remarked; “It strikes one only as something missing.” Here lies a motive for the delayed development for a special term for green. Although more conspicuous than blue and named sooner, it stays far behind in strikingness and pregnancy in comparison with red, yellow, white and the like. The same basic principle underlies less favorable interpreta- tions such as an everyday color, commonplace, plain: it has no essential consequences, and is accepted for what it is. Maeter- linck even uses it in an offensive meaning: “Tl y a une petite ame de cuisiniére au fond de ses yeux verts” (194, 20). The quietness represented by green differs entirely from that of blue or white. It is typified neither by the absolute absence of any motion which is typical of white nor by the ideal, harmonious relaxation of blue. Green as it were is dynamic in a newtralized way. Although real interaction actually takes place the move- ments compensate each other; although certainly dynamic, green is tensionless. It is lightly stimulating, refreshingly restful. And this is the typical aspect of green’s “naturalness”; that its harmony at thesame time is stimulating. In this respect therefore the difference with red is not so great. Hein maintains that of the pairs of complementary colors red and green are the least contrasting. In red, however, the very tenseness and explosivenessDISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS 125 of life as such are manifest, while in green they are hidden by the equilibrium of divergent tendencies. In green life is given as a potentiality, as a restful intermission from which more expansive life may develop as flowers develop from the quiet shelter of green leaves, The deeper value of green lies particularly in the future, in that which eventually it may produce. Hence it is also the color of growth (see p. 16). In Egypt Buto, the goddess of growth, was sometimes called “the papyrus-colored” or ‘the green one.” All green things were believed to have a certain magic significance in regard to healthy development. The ancient Egyptian wid — green and wd3 = healthy are closely related (2, 4258f.) Green therefore is the best-known symbol of youth. It is young, childlike, youthful (49%). In this sense green is often used sym- bolically. Beaudelaire writes about “le vert paradis des amours enfantines” (54, 40). We know phrases such as: a greenhorn, the salad days, griim um den Schnabel. The same implication is evident in such expressions as a green wound or a green fire. In Scotland the milk of a cow who has just calved is called “green- milk.” In this connection Christoffel’s theory on the psycho- analytical meaning of green is interesting: according to him green is the color of the son who has not yet outgrown his mother- identification, of the man who has remained a child emotionally. Green in combination with old age, as in “green old age,” always implies spiritual youth, freshness preserved in spite of old age. Mallarmé “voulant suggérer le style a la fois frais et bien deve- loppé,” speaks of a verte maturité (1, 62). The “perennial youth” is signified by the symbol of immortality: the laurel wreath, We have found that white, yellow, red and blue were also representative of youth, each in its own specific fashion. White is youth in the sense of the first beginning, the “tabula rasa,” innocent and fragile. Yellow represents the primitive brilliance of youth, its egocentricity, its domineeringness; it symbolizes youth in its early stage of differentiation. Red is youth as cha- racterized by its full dynamic force, by its indefatigable liveliness and activity. And youth as it is remembered, as a phase long past, is blue. But green symbolizes youth in a more general sense: as the unripe, the not yet fully grown in which divergent tendencies are already present but as yet dormant, in balance, natural and