Overview

Being able to shape people’s perspectives through your palette preference? Color us impressed. Course No. 7022

There’s more to colors than just aesthetics. There’s an actual science behind how colors work on your eyes and your brain. The secrets that scientists are uncovering offer astounding revelations about how colors influence the way you think, feel, and behave. Surprisingly, the way our eyes perceive and our brains interpret reds, greens, blues, blacks, and other colors isn’t a subjective experience, but a hard-wired one.

This profound concept extends to everything from business and advertising to politics and entertainment. These lectures will open your eyes to why your favorite products practically jump off the shelf; why certain logos are more memorable than others; and why particular scenes in nature evoke peace, joy, or fear.

Now you can learn how to tap into the power of color to create environments and achieve a range of visual goals in the six lectures of “How Colors Affect You,” taught by design expert and professor William Lidwell of the University of Houston. Central to this course is the expanse of information about how colors influence our brains and steer our thoughts and actions.

You’ll go behind the scenes and examine fascinating experiments and case studies that scientists have used to uncover what they know about color. Finally, you’ll understand the often-hidden significance behind the colors of your everyday life. This is a must-have course for corporate leaders, design professionals, marketers, and anyone else who communicates visually. “How Colors Affect You” tells you everything you need to know about the science of color and its impact on all aspects of human experience, rooted in credible scientific knowledge and not popular myth.

Course Structure

1. The Meanings of Color

Begin your exploration of how colors affect you with a look at the general science behind color, first uncovered during landmark experiments by Isaac Newton. Investigate how color shapes our perception of what food tastes like and discover the three core ideas that form the foundation of how all humans perceive, interpret, and respond to color.

• Duration: 35 min

2. The Black and White Lecture

Black and white are colors like any other when examined from the perspective of what your brain sees. Focus on competitive contexts (black signals aggression) and moral contexts (black signals evil) in this fascinating lecture.

• Duration: 32 min

3. The Red Lecture

Explore the primal significance of the color red in expressing fear, strength, beauty, status, and passion. Learn how red signals dominance in competitive situations and represent male status and female fertility in mating roles.

• Duration: 33 min

4. The Yellow Lecture

Investigate why yellow is the most vibrant color to the human eye and its fine line between “good” and “bad” shades. Understand how yellow signals health or danger and can enhance cognitive performance.

• Duration: 32 min

5. The Green Lecture

Discover the positive associations with the color green, including life, fertility, and success. Explore green’s role in fostering creativity and reducing anxiety, as well as its signals of “naturalness” and “approach.”

• Duration: 31 min

6. The Blue Lecture

In this final lecture, learn about the unique properties of blue that set it apart from other colors. Discover how blue fosters openness, creativity, friendliness, and well-being, and its associations with sadness and melancholy.

• Duration: 39 min