BBC: How color affects us

This is the programme where we hope to add some color to your life by talking about an interesting subject and teaching you some useful vocabulary. 

And color is what we're talking about today. What's your favorite color, Neil?

Oh, I like green- a fresh, bold color, that reminds me a natue- it can have a calming effect, and you?

It's got to be blue- it reminds me of the sea, the sky- and holidays, of course!

Color- no matter which one we prefer- affects how we feel. And we'll be talking about that soon. But not before I challenge you to answer my quiz question. Do you know what the splitting of white light into its different color is called? Is it...

a) dispersion   b) reflection or  c) refraction ? 분산, 반사, 굴절

Hmm, well I'm not a acientist, so I'll have a quess as c) refraction. 

OK, I'll reveal the right answer later on. But now, let's talk more about color. Color can represent many different things, depending on where you come from. You can be 'green with envy'- wishing you had what someone else had.

And someone can feel blue- so feel depressed. We choose colors to express ourselves in what we wear or how we decorate our home. 

The BBC Radio 4 programme. You and Yours, has been talking about color and whether it affects everyone's mood. KarenHaller is a color psychologist and a color designer and consultant- she explained how color affects us...

It's the way that we take in the wavelengths of light because color is wavelengths of light, and it's how that comes in through our eye, and then it goes into the part of our brain called the hypothalamus, which governs our sleeping patterns, our hormones, our behaviours, our appetite- it governs everything and so different colors and different frequencies or different wavelengths of light, we have different responses and different reactions to them.

So, color is wavelengths of light- a wavelength is the distance between two waves of sound or light that are next to each other. As these wavelengths change, so does the color we see. 

Thanks for the science lesson! Karen also explained that there's a part of our brain that controls- she used the word govern- how we feel and how we behave. And this can change depending on what color we see. 

Interesting stuff- of course, color can affect us defferently. Seeing red can make one person angry, but someone else may just feel energized. 

Homeware and furnishing manufacturers offer a whole spectrum- or range- of colors to choose to suit everyone's taste, and mood. But during the recent coronvirus pandemic, there was a rise in demand for intense, bright shades and patterns. This was referred to as 'happy design'- design that was meant to help lift our mood. 

Yes, and Karen Haller spoke a bit more about this on the You and Yours programme...

In the time when everyone was out and we were all working, and we lived very busy lives, quite often what people wanted- they wanted a quiet sancturary to come back to, so they had very pale colors or very low chromatic colors in their house- low saturation- because that helped them unwind and helped them relax and to feel very soothed. But what I have found since the first lockdown is a lot of people, because they're not getting that outside stimulation, they're actually putting a lot of brighter colors in their home because they're trying to bring in that feeling that they would have got when they were out- that excitement and that buzz. 

It seems that in our normal busy working lives, our homes were peaceful places and somewhere to relax- they were a sanctuary. To create this relaxing space, we use pale colors- ones that lack intensity, like sky blue. 

But during the recent lockdowns, when we weren't ourside much, we tried to get that stimulation- that excitement or experience- by decorating our homes with brighter color. Such as yellow!

Hmmm, perhaps a little too bright for me! It is all about personal taste and the connections we make with the colors we see but it makes sense that brighter colors can certainly lift our mood. 

Now, earlier I asked you, Georgina, do you know what the splitting of white light into its different colors is called? Is it...

a) dispersion   b) reflection    or c) refraction ?

And I said it was refraction. 

Sorry, Georgina, that's wrong. It is actually called dispersion. Back to school for you- but not before we recap some of today's vocabulary.