There is a whole field of esoteric but inexact science (some brand it a pseudo-science) that explores the connection of colour and what it tells about one’s personality. They call it Colour Psychology.
The causality of any such connection seems suspect, the co-relation, however, is eminently persuasive and plausible.
But the fact of colours occupying a central position in human life is undeniable. Oscar Wilde, known for his great witticism, has this to say about the colours in human life. ‘Mere colour, he wrote,’ unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.’, and the famous avant-garde painter Georgia O’Keeffe said,’I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way-things I had no words for.’ Given this propensity of colour to influence human thinking, seeking a nexus between colour and human mind is thus natural, even compelling.
But to investigate whether colours can describe one’s personality, shall require two additional awareness. First, one must know what is the nature of one’s personality. I suppose nature of an individual and his personality may not be the same but they are closely linked. Is the former intrinsic and the latter manifestational? One is not sure.
The other requirement is that one must know what various colours are supposed to represent in relation to one’s personality. Both requirements are tough and tentative. And they are also suppositional, interpretive, even philosophical.
If red colour is supposed to represent vitality and aggression, and blue serenity and depth, no apparent explanation is available as to why it is so? And for that matter why certain personality attributes are supposed to represent any particular colour? Are these assertions empirical, experiential, observational? and are they reliable? These questions make the task of meaningfully address the proposition difficult, obtuse, confusing, challenging and exciting.
Problem arises when one is not sure how to describe one’s personality. Because only then one can relate it to anything else, even if it is as abstract as colour. An extension of the problem is that how do we know which colour supposedly connect to which personality type? Are there any standard references or texts that enlighten us in this regard?
One possible way is to approach the question is by flipping its contents. One can describe one’s personality, at least it’s major features broadly, Then one can describe what colours one likes, and then deduce that anyone who likes these colours will also demonstrate those personality traits.
I propose to do exactly this.
My favourite colours are blue and green. Blue is the colour of sea and sky, of placid lakes and of depths of water, of vast expanse of universe. Green is the colour of nature, of trees and forests, of grass and vegetation, of earth. Both these colours are elemental, primal.
And I am phlegmatic and demonstrative simultaneously, serious and frivolous at the same time. I am generous but also envious. I like to give but I also hoard. I feel evolved and sublime often but also a slave to my urges and desires as much and not infrequently. So, who I am, or what I am? And which colour or colours describe my personality?
Do colours also reveal contradictions, as do human personalities?? Do the colours mask and dominate other colours to an extent that while they exist, they don’t show. As human personality is complex, multi-dimensional and layered, a colour could as well be hiding other colours that are there but are hidden from the eye. All personalities reveal a lot but hide lot more as do colours. The dominance of one subjugating the existence of others.
While some correlation is possible to be established between one’s personality and one’s favourite colour(s), the connection is tenuous. That favourite colours reveal individual’s personalities is mythical and merely a prevalence of perception without any scientific support. is however, the widely held conclusion in the scientific world of today. At least, for the present. In a study, a year ago, published in ‘Personality Science’ entitled ‘What does your favourite colour say about your personality?’, a group of scientists concluded that favourite colours appeared unrelated to personality, and no practical utility could be ascribed to colour based personality assessments. Similar findings have been reported from other studies as well.
But does science matter when it comes to matters of emotions and sentiments, tastes and dislikes, love and abhorrence, sacrifice and selfishness, possession and renunciation? The constituents of human personality are complex and contradictory. That humans are irrational and that heart often conquers over head is a definitional and driving description of human personality.
I will therefore, still, argue that such a nexus does exist, perhaps not verifiable and tested against the limited tools of cognition available to science at this point of time, but accepted in the realm of belief and conviction.
scribo ad LX 