Today I write about the color red and it’s various meanings. No, this article will have nothing to do with the color purple or the amount of shades of gray there are, just the color red.
Earlier I was playing Candy Crush Saga and by using a color bomb I destroyed all the red candies. Afterwards a few more red candies appeared and the “anger guy” from the movie “Inside out” popped in my head – he’s red. Bear with me, Valentine’s Day is coming up so I immediately thought of the color that is associated with that day – also red. Therefore, I started thinking: it’s funny how this 1 color is both associated with anger and love. This made me research what other meanings the color has.
The color red and psychology
In psychology, the color red is described as warm and positive. This color is also associated with our most physical needs and our will to survive and it exudes a strong and powerful masculine energy. When I read about the masculine energy, I immediately thought of anger again. Yes, both men and women get angry, but the way men utter it is far more aggressive. At the same time Valentine’s Day is a day for both men and women, yet the gifts and red roses are mostly given to women. So this makes the color less masculine if you ask me.
Psychology also describes red as energizing. “It excites the emotions and motivates us to take action.” Looking at it from an emotional point of view, then I understand why the red roses are key on Valentine’s Day as well.
According to psychology, the color red also signifies a pioneering spirit and leadership qualities, promoting ambition and determination. But if you google “ambition” or “determination” and you look at the pictures associated with these words, red isn’t the dominating color. When you google “leadership” and you click on the images, then the leader is often characterized as being red, but in my opinion that’s only to accentuate who the leader actually is…
A fun fact that psychology points out is that the color red is often used to express love, as in Valentine’s Day, however it relates more to sexuality and lust, rather than love – love is expressed with pink. When I read this, I thought of an article I recently read about unconditional love. I personally disagree with the conclusion of this article, but if you think about what Valentine’s Day is supposed to represent and what it apparently really represents with the red colors, then I understand where the writer of that article is coming from.
The color red has a lot more associations, but I will not get into those, because that would make this article extremely long. If you want to read more about the color red, I found a useful site you can visit.
I personally find red a beautiful and sometimes intimidating color and now I know more about it.
Jilly speaks her mind 