The psychology of color as it relates to persuasion is one of the most exciting and controversial aspects of marketing.

The reason: Most of today's conversations on colors and persuasion consist of hunches, anecdotal evidence, and advertisers blowing smoke about "colors and the mind."

To alleviate this trend and adequately treat a truly fascinating element of human behavior, we will cover a selection of the most reliable research on color theory and persuasion.

Misconceptions around the Psychology of Color

Why does color psychology invoke so much conversation ... but is backed with so little factual data?

As research shows, it's likely because elements such as personal preference, experiences, upbringing, cultural differences, context, etc., often muddy individual colors' effect on us. So the idea that colors such as yellow or purple can invoke some hyper-specific emotion is about as accurate as your standard Tarot card reading.