Color has long been used to create feelings of coziness or spaciousness. However, how people are affected by different color stimuli varies from person to person.
Blue is the top choice for 35% of Americans, followed by green (16%), purple (10%) and red (9%).
A preference for blue and green may be due to a preference for certain habitats that were beneficial in the ancestral environment as explained in the evolutionary aesthetics article.
There is evidence that color preference may depend on ambient temperature. People who are cold prefer warm colors like red and yellow while people who are hot prefer cool colors like blue and green.
Some research has concluded that women and men respectively prefer "warm" and "cool" colors.
A few studies have shown that cultural background has a strong influence on color preference. These studies have shown that people from the same region regardless of race will have the same color preferences. Also, one region may have different preferences than another region (i.e., a different country or a different area of the same country), regardless of race.
Children's preferences for colors they find to be pleasant and comforting can be changed and can vary, while adult color preference is usually non-malleable.
Some studies find that color can affect mood. However, these studies do not agree on precisely which moods are brought out by which colors.
Despite cross-cultural differences regarding what different colors meant there were cross-cultural similarities regarding what emotional states people associated with different colors in one study. For example, the color red was perceived as strong and active.
We all know the effect of color, we just don't make use of it.
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