How Colours Affect Behaviour in Children (2024)

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How Colours Affect Behaviour in Children? ›

Color selection can cause children to become excitable and hyperactive or bored and uninterested. Research shows that lighter colors, such as yellow and blue, elicit positive feelings while darker colors such as deep blue, black, or gray create negative emotions.

Emotions: Like children of any age, colors can affect a toddler's emotions and mood. Bright and warm colors such as yellow, orange, and red can promote feelings of happiness and energy, while cool colors such as blue and green can create a calming effect.

Bright, warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows) stimulate energy and happiness while cool, subdued colors (blues, greens, purples) are soothing and calming.

Responses also demonstrated distinct color-emotion associations. Children had positive reactions to bright colors (e.g., pink, blue, red) and negative emotions for dark colors (e.g., brown, black, gray).

Colors close to the red spectrum are warmer colors, including red, orange, and yellow. These warm colors evoke emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility. Whereas blue colors like purple and green are known for evoking feelings of calm, sadness, or indifference.

Chromatic primary colors, red, green, yellow, and blue are especially appealing to young children. When infants are presented with the full chromatic spectrum they spend more time looking at red and blue than yellow and green. Colors have meanings because of the way that our brains are trained in early development.

But a state senator in California says freshly compiled research proves that artificial food colorings — which appear on nutrition labels as Red 40, Yellow 5 and Blue 1, among other names — negatively affect many children, and parents have the right to be informed.

Yellow was most often associated with a normal mood and grey with an anxious or depressed mood. Different shades of the same color had completely different positive or negative connotations. Reproducibility was exceptionally high when color choice was recorded in positive, neutral or negative terms.

Green – Quiet and restful, green is a soothing color that can invite harmony and diffuse anxiety. Blue – A highly peaceful color, blue can be especially helpful for stress management because it can encourage a powerful sense of calm. Purple – In many cultures, shades of violet represent strength, wisdom and peace.

What color calms kids? ›

Light shades of blue are ideal for kids' rooms. Blue walls bring to mind a beautiful clear sky or calm waters. Studies have shown that blue has a calming effect. It lowers your blood pressure and heart rate, making it easier to relax and fall asleep.

Kids are more drawn to colors that are bright like- red, yellow, green, blue, and pink. Such colors can help in creating a sense of positive energy and playfulness. These colors also radiate happiness.

In general, children tend to prefer colors with higher saturation levels, such as red, green, blue, and purple. Girls, in particular, show a preference for red and purple colors. However, the preference for yellow colors is positively correlated with lightness.

Some of the effects of colors appear across several cultures. Warm colors like red, yellow and orange evoke higher arousal emotions, such as love, passion, happiness, and anger. Cool colors, like blue, green and purple are linked to calmness, sadness and indifference.

In the book Surrounded by Idiots, colors are used to break down the most common personalities into four categories: Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue. Red and Yellow personalities are considered to be extroverted, while the Green and Blue personalities are introverted.

Other studies have focused on the benefits originated from the association between red and aggression. Little and Hill (2007) found that, compared to blue shapes, red shapes were regarded to be more aggressive and dominant and more likely to win in physical competitions.

Stimulating the Senses Colours

Bright and vibrant colours can excite and energize a child, while softer tones can have a calming effect. Exposure to a variety of colours helps in sensory development by engaging a child's sight and encouraging them to differentiate between different hues and shades.

While there are several factors involved, Morton explains that the main reason color stimulates learning is that 60 percent of our brain is dedicated to processing visual information. “Color is critically important to the power and presence of the visual neurons that are firing in the brain,” she says.

For children, coloring can be a way to not only express their creativity but to relax, focus, and be mindful, especially after having an influx of difficult emotions. One study showed that coloring was able to reduce anxiety levels and increase perseverance in young people (Eaton and Tieber, 2017).

Here are the ways some common colors affect students' behavior and learning: Yellow — Bright and cheery yellow is associated with motivation and happiness. A subtle yellow shade can improve concentration, while brighter shades increase metabolism and stimulate memory.