Psychology of the colour black

Do you want to know all about the psychology of the colour black? Read on and we’ll reveal the most interesting details about the colour black.

Black is associated with the occult, the secret and the unknown, so it creates an air of mystery. It keeps things hidden inside, hidden from the world.

In black psychology, this colour protects from external emotional stress.

It creates a barrier between yourself and the outside world, providing comfort and protecting your emotions and feelings, and hiding your vulnerabilities, insecurities, and lack of self-confidence.

• Black is the absorption of all colour and the absence of light.
• Black hides, while white brings out the light.
• What black covers, white uncovers.

We all use black at various times to hide from the world around us in one way or another. Some of us use it to hide our weight; others, to hide our feelings, our fears or our insecurities.

What does black imply and how does it influence us? Also if black is your favourite colour or if you like to wear black, what does that say about your personality and psychological motivations?

With subtractive RYB colours, black is created by mixing all colours together, mixing paint for example. In the light and RGB model, black is the absence of light, or no reflected light.

Black is often associated with wealth, intelligence, seriousness, negativity, evil, the unknown, formality, death and power.

Black is also associated with style. Black suits are often worn by businessmen and women, a black suit implies seriousness and professionalism. Black is a very versatile colour that suits many situations, such as in business, weddings and in our social and personal lives.

There is a lot of mystery associated with the colour black, black hides things and absorbs other colours. It can also be a very effective colour to make other colours stand out.

Symbolism and psychology of the colour black

Mystery: Black is the unknown. He is secretive, keeps a lot inside, doesn’t want to show his true feelings.

Power and controll: Black is power and control of self and others. It creates fear and intimidation.

Associated positive characteristics

• Power: Black is a very strong and powerful colour that demands seriousness and respect. It can be an intimidating colour that also suggests discipline.
• Elegance: Black is associated with elegance, style, wealth and sophistication. Black almost always looks good and elegant.
• Attractive: Black, like red, is associated with seduction and sexuality, but is less obvious. It has the combination of attraction, mystery and dominance.

Negative characteristics associated with the colour black

• Evil or evil: It is often linked to and depicted in storytelling as evil, the light side and the dark side, good and evil.
• The end of things: Black can be a depressing colour, and has obvious connections to death, or the end of things, the end of a situation or the end of an era.

Personality associated with black

If you’re one of those people whose favourite colour is black, some of these characteristics probably apply to your personality:

• You are a serious person, you can find it hard to let go and enjoy yourself.
• You are a very independent person, you like to do things for yourself and rarely ask for help from others.
• Because of your serious nature, you often seem intimidating to some people.
• You are not in touch with your emotions, your mind naturally suppresses your feelings and desires.
• You have a rebellious nature, you don’t like authority or being told what to do.
• You like to feel strong, powerful and capable.
• You like to keep things to yourself, privacy is important to you and you like to maintain a certain mystery about yourself.
• You don’t approach people easily, you put up walls and barriers to protect yourself.

Marketing and the use of black

Black represents glamour, sophistication and exclusivity. When an emerging brand uses black as its main brand colour, it is interpreted as a communication signal of seriousness. Black is a strong colour, it can interact with the human mind more easily than any other colour.

The colour black immediately changes a person’s mood, either on the positive or negative side. Trademarks that use the colour black are more likely to communicate a sense of seriousness, heaviness and oppression.

The downside of black in business is that it symbolises the trains of being threatening, unapproachable, fiery and overly serious. When black is used in branding, the carefree or light-hearted mentality is taken away from the brand’s image and a serious image is attributed to it.

The colour black and nature

The black widow is the most venomous spider in North America, but only the females are dangerous. The black widow produces the strongest silk of all spider species, and the bright red hourglass on the spider’s abdomen warns birds and other predators of the spider’s potent venom. This is a sign of the psychology of the black colour.

The Black Sea borders Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia and Russia. Its waters are particularly calm and have no tidal variations. Although it used to be a more abundant source of fish and wildlife, the Black Sea has been heavily polluted and rampant overfishing has contributed to a sharp decline in fish stocks.

Black holes form when large stars collapse, and are so dense that gravity is inescapable, even for light! Astronomers believe that there is a supermassive black hole at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.

Black bears are only found in North America, where they are the smallest of the three North American species. Black bears live in at least forty U.S. states, and their average lifespan is about ten years.

What did you think of the psychology of the colour black? If you want to discover all the details and secrets behind each of the most important colours, take a look at our colour psychology section and the psychology of colour in advertising article, where you will find information about yellow, red, blue, green, among others.