Colours affect people’s behaviour, mood, reactions, and even thoughts. As humans, we tend to associate colours with personal experiences and memories, but what if colours are not real and are just an illusion?
“Colour doesn’t exist in the real world, shape exist. For example, if I see a coffee cup, I can verify that shape by reaching out and touching it, then my vision and sense of touch would agree,” says Jody Culham, Neuropsychologist at Western University.
She adds that colour is actually just based on how our eyeballs are wired and what type of cells we have in our retina.
“We have 4 types of cells called photo-receptors in our retina. Three types are called cons and they enable us to see colour. One type is called rodes and they enable us to see brightness, especially when we are in dim light.”
She says our response to colours is based on how much those three types of cons are responding “if one is responding a lot, will perceive it as red. If another one is responding a lot, will perceive it as blue.”
Anton Mijatovic is a Londoner who was born blind. He says that even though colours do not impact his emotions, at night he dreams he visually able to see them.
“I’ve never seen colour before, so I go by what people tells me and also by experience. When it comes to differentiating clothes, I use the method of shapes and braille tags. Also, I learned in school that red stands for hot, blue for cold,” says Mijatovic.
Colour can impact people in many surprising ways. It is believed that installing blue-colored streetlights could reduced crimes and prevent suicides. Also, a study by the US national institute of health found that sport teams dressed in black uniforms are more likely to receive penalties and also found that people associate negative qualities with a player wearing a black uniform.
