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Can Colors You Wear Affect Your Mood?

You have probably noticed that you pick colors based on your mood at the time you are dressing. If you are feeling flirty, for example, you may pick a red dress. Although it seems obvious that mood helps determine what colors you choose to wear, there is some evidence to suggest that the opposite may also be true--that your mood is affected by what you are wearing.

  1. Biological Color Preferences

    • Another person notices a color you are wearing and responds to you, which affects your response back and influences your mood. In mammals (including humans), for example, the female's skin reddens during ovulation--thus her change in skin color to a pinker hue. Males see the reddened skin and become attracted to the female. The female senses the attraction and feels more confident. An article published in the 2010 edition of the "Journal of Evolutionary Psychology" found that people tend to rate others wearing red as more attractive, even when they could not see what colors were being worn.

    Primary Hues

    • The principle hues of red, yellow, green, blue and purple tend to evoke positive feelings. A study conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Georgia asked 98 college students to rate the feelings they had while looking at different colors. Significantly more people felt positive when looking at these colors. The color green has been associated with feeling relaxed and comfortable. This color frequently occurs in nature, which many people find relaxing.

    Intermediate Hues

    • Intermediate hues do not occur as frequently as primary colors do in nature. These include colors such as yellow-red, green-yellow, blue-green, purple-blue, and red-purple. Yellow-green evoked the least number of positive responses. People reported that this color resembled vomit.

    Achromatic Colors

    • Black, gray and white also tend to elicit positive feelings, albeit not as strong as the primary colors. Black is thought of as a power color, while white is associated with sterility and purity. Gray is thought of as soothing.

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