Short Stuff: Color Psychology

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stuff You Should Know – Short Stuff: Color Psychology

Release Date: February 4, 2026
Hosts: Josh and Chuck
Podcast Network: iHeartPodcasts

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Overview

In this Short Stuff episode, Josh and Chuck explore the fascinating topic of color psychology—the study of how colors impact our emotions, behaviors, and cultural meanings. While the field lacks universality due to personal, cultural, and situational factors, the hosts break down the ways colors shape our perceptions, choices, and sense of self, weaving in memorable anecdotes and everyday examples.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Personal and Cultural Nature of Color Psychology (00:56 – 03:53)

• No Universal Rules:
  Color responses are highly individual and culturally influenced. Factors like upbringing, age, mood, and specific experiences with colors all play a role in how we perceive colors.

  • Josh: "It seems sort of obvious to say that people have reactions to color. And it is. But there's a lot more that goes into it beyond just like, seeing a color and having a feeling..." (00:56)
  • Chuck: "It's a very personal response. But the fact that people do have emotional and psychological responses to color... is worth investigating." (01:30)

• Color in Marketing and Design:
  Industries like advertising and interior design strategically use color psychology to evoke certain emotions and responses in large groups—even if individual reactions vary.

  • Chuck: "...There are some broad strokes, especially when you're talking about a large culture, a bunch of societies that form an even bigger culture that you can manipulate to sell things..." (01:30)

• Color Drenching Trend:
  Josh shares plans to "color drench" his bedroom by painting walls, ceilings, and trim all the same deep green shade—a technique he says can make a space feel “cozy.”

  • Josh: "Color drenching is when you paint everything in there the same color. Like ceiling trim, doors, everything." (02:30)
  • Chuck: "That sounds really cool. Are you doing it in matte?" (02:52)

Color Symbolism Across Cultures (03:53 – 06:38)

• Assigned Meanings Differ:
  Societies assign different meanings to colors, such as mourning being associated with black in the West and white in many Eastern cultures.

  • Chuck: "There's not an inherent meaning or symbolism in colors. It's all what one culture decides that color means." (03:53)

• Unique Associations:
  Examples include green being lucky in the West due to Irish symbolism, or personal experiences shaping aversions—like being chased by a bear making green or brown unappealing.

  • Chuck: "...It gets like that detailed and that granular." (04:54)

• Cross-Cultural Studies:
  Globally, concepts like “warm” and “cold” colors are consistent, but associations with good and bad can differ. In Japan, blue and green are good, red, purple, and orange are bad; while in the US, red, yellow, green are good.

  • Josh: "They found that American, Japanese, their concepts of warm and cold colors are about the same. But in Japan, blue and green are perceived as good, and red, purple, orange are perceived as bad." (05:25)

• Mourning Colors Example:
  Purple, gold, black, and white can all be considered mourning colors, varying within and across cultures.

  • Chuck: "But I do know that purple and gold and white and black are all depending on the culture, appropriate morning wear." (06:13)

The Influence of the Classic Crayola 8 (07:42 – 12:15)

• Red:
  Associated with strength, courage, aggression, and physiological responses (increased heart rate). Used for stop signs and warnings due to its attention-grabbing nature.

  • Josh: "...red is just a very big, bold, brave choice in a lot of cases." (07:47)

• Orange:
  Divisive—some love it, some hate it. Can symbolize flamboyance, energy, comfort, and warmth.

  • Chuck: "Apparently a lot of people can’t stand orange and I get that because there are colors that I can’t stand." (08:32)
  • Chuck: "...flamboyance, energy, comfort, warmth. I mean, you can't really put four different things that are less associated with one another together." (09:48)

• Personal Color Preferences:
  The hosts discuss favorite and least favorite colors, highlighting the subjectivity of color feelings.

  • Josh: "What's your favorite color?" (09:00)
  • Chuck: "Blue. Often like a robin's egg blue. But also I like royal blue’s... I also like pastels." (09:02)
  • Josh: "...I definitely love greens and browns and hues of orange the most." (09:26)

• Black:
  Represents beauty, power, and authority, but can be overwhelming. Symbolism changes depending on context (western movies and tech/“hacker” terminology).

  • Josh: "Black is beautiful, black is powerful. Authoritativeness comes to mind, obviously, like strength." (10:05)
  • Chuck: "In hacking too...black hat hackers and white hat hackers." (10:44)

• Yellow:
  Highly variable in meaning—associated with cowardice, cheerfulness, and legendary studies about people crying longer in yellow rooms (though evidence is lacking). The effect changes with brightness and saturation.

  • Chuck: “…yellow…is associated with so many different things. Like we call people who are cowards, they're called yellow… It's also considered very cheerful. Right. I mean, yellow's like the color of the smiley face and the sun.” (10:53)

Choosing Colors Effectively (12:28 – 12:48)

• Test Before Committing:
  The hosts emphasize sampling paint with testers and observing colors under varied lighting before committing—since context (like light quality) dramatically changes color appearance.
  • Josh: “You got to get those small little tester sizes and just throw a little on the wall and see what you think, and then look at it in a bunch of different light, regular daylight, because that really can change the hue of a color...” (12:28)
  • Chuck: "Your power may go out at some point. You want to make sure it looks good in that, too." (12:41)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Complexity of Color Associations:
  Chuck (03:53): "There's not an inherent meaning or symbolism in colors. It's all what one culture decides that color means."
• On Marketing and Design:
  Chuck (01:30): "...you can manipulate [people] to sell things to those people if you want to. Using color as a marketer, advertiser."
• On Color Drenching:
  Josh (02:30): "Color drenching is when you paint everything in there the same color. Like ceiling trim, doors, everything.”
• On Testing Colors:
  Josh (12:28): "...just throw a little on the wall and see what you think, and then look at it in a bunch of different light..."
• On Yellow and Mood:
  Chuck (10:54): "...there's also like this idea that you might cry longer in a yellow room, which I cannot find anything to actually back that up. It's almost just become legendary."

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro to Color Psychology & Individual Factors: 00:56 – 01:30
• Color Symbolism and Cultural Differences: 03:53 – 06:38
• Discussion of Crayola 8 Main Colors: 07:42 – 12:15
• Choosing and Testing Paint Colors: 12:28 – 12:48

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Final Thoughts

This episode takes listeners through the layered, nuanced world of color psychology—reminding us how colors shape our emotions, environments, and even our memories. It’s both practical and mind-opening, blending science, culture, and personal anecdote while never losing the laid-back, conversational charm Josh and Chuck are known for.

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Short Stuff is out! (12:50)

Transcript

[Josh]

This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human.

[NBC Announcer]

Friday. Kick off the Winter Olympics in style with the opening ceremony from Italy, featuring a special performance by Mariah Carey. Celebrate the greatest athletes from around the globe as they come together to go for gold.

[Chuck]

Lipsy for sensational.

[NBC Announcer]

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. Ilia Malady, redefining the sport Friday at 8 Eastern, 7pm Central on NBC. And Peacock.

[Chuck]

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. And there's Chuck. And Jerry's here. And I just realized that I opened this like a regular episode, but it's not because Jerry's not really here. She's here for Dave, who's possessed. Jerry, which makes this a short stuff.

[Josh]

That's right. And we are talking about color psychology today. You put this one together, and I think it's a pretty good one because, you know, it seems sort of obvious to say that people have reactions to color. And it is. But there's a lot more that goes into it beyond just like, seeing a color and having a feeling like where you were raised, what kind of culture you were raised in, maybe how old you are, maybe how you're feeling at the time, specific experiences with that kind of color. And there's a field that studies this called color psychology.

[Chuck]

Yeah. So it's an interesting field in that it's very quickly figured out there's no universality to color psychology because of all those factors that you just mentioned. It's a very personal response. But the fact that people do have emotional and psychological responses to color, which means that it's just totally symbolic to them, that is worth investigating and diving into. And then also, there are some broad strokes, especially when you're talking about a large culture, a bunch of societies that form an even bigger culture that you can manipulate to sell things to those people if you want to. Using color as a marketer, advertiser.

[Josh]

Yeah, I mean, a lot of thought, like, beyond just your own home or whatever, how you want to paint your room, which, by the way, we're gonna color drench our bedroom soon. Have you heard of this?

[Chuck]

No.

[Josh]

Color drenching is when you paint everything in there.

[Chuck]

Oh, neat.

[Josh]

The same color. Like ceiling trim, doors, everything.

[Chuck]

What about. And lamps and stuff, too? Or just the stuff that's fastened down?

[Josh]

No, no, no. Just like wall, ceiling trim, doors, everything you would normally paint. You paint it all one color. And it sounds oppressive, but it's really kind of awesome. And it seems like a trend.

[Chuck]

That sounds really cool. Are you doing it in matte? It seems like a mat for something like that?

[Josh]

Yeah. Probably matte, maybe semi gloss, but it'll be. I think it'll really cozy up our bedroom, which we're looking to do.

[Chuck]

That's cool, man. Do you know what color you're going to get?

[Josh]

Probably like a deep green, something kind of dark.

[Chuck]

Okay. I used to have, back in the 90s, back when Burgundy and dark blue and hunter green were all in fashion, I put them all together in my bedroom and it looks knockout.

[Josh]

Awesome. Yeah. Well, I'll let you know how it goes.

[Chuck]

Okay.

[Josh]

I'll just. I'll just nudge you in bed and say, what do you think?

[Chuck]

Perfect.

[Josh]

All right. So we were talking about the obvious thing, like just painting your room or something. But, you know, a lot of thought goes into color design for logos and like the lobby of the big corporation or what kind of color the nurse's uniform should be or the kid's hospital room should be. Like, that's all color psychology, for sure.

[Chuck]

There's also color symbolism, too, where your culture basically says, hey, we believe wearing black is a sign of mourning. Like, if you're in mourning, wear black. If you go to another culture, typically in the east, they'll say, no, you wear white when you're in mourning. Right. So there's not an inherent meaning or symbolism in colors. It's all what one culture decides that color means. Like, another good example is associating luck with green. And you can actually trace that back to Ireland being considered the Emerald Isle and leprechauns being associated with luck. So through a bunch of cultural convolutions, the west associates green with good luck. Right. That you would not find that in other cultures. Right. So there is like a real culturally bound aspect to it. But like you said before, it gets even more gradiated to where if you were chased by a bear in the woods as a kid, you're probably not going to like the color green very much or you're not going to like brown, because that reminds you of the color of the grizzly bear. Whereas somebody else would be like, I was raised on a farm and everything was brown and I loved it. So I love the color brown. It gets like that detailed and that granular. The upshot of the whole thing is that colors can affect us and that in and of itself, it's so we just know that. But if you step back and actually think about what's going on, it's actually kind of mind blowing, especially in the ways it affects us.

[Josh]

Yeah, for sure. They have done cross cultural studies about how it is around the world. They found that American, Japanese, their concepts of warm and cold colors are about the same. But in Japan, blue and green are perceived as good, and red, purple, orange are perceived as bad. Where in the United States red, yellow, green is considered good and orange and red and purple bad. Yeah. And one thing I wanted to mention about the morning colors is we have an African American church right around the block from us. And they have had their fair share of funerals over the years. And a lot of these. I've seen everybody wearing purple. And I wondered if that was a thing in the black community or if it was just something particular to the person, like that was their favorite color.

[Chuck]

I don't know. But I do know that purple and gold and white and black are all depending on the culture, appropriate morning wear.

[Josh]

Yeah. I'm curious. I mean, I hope someone could write in and tell me. Cause I never feel like I can just walk up to the gathering and say, like, hey, was this person into purple? Or what's the deal?

[Chuck]

Yeah.

[Josh]

Not the right time.

[Chuck]

I'm sorry for your loss, but I just have to ask you.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Chuck]

You want to take a break and come back and talk about the Crayola 8 pack of colors?

[Josh]

Let's do it.

[NBC Announcer]

Friday, kick off the Winter Olympics in style with the opening ceremony from Italy, featuring a special performance by Mariah Carey. Celebrate the greatest athletes from around the globe as they come together to go for gold. Let sensational, the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. Ilia Malin redefining the sport Friday at 8 Eastern, 7 Central on NBC. And Peacock.

[Josh]

All right, Josh promised now that we're back to talk about the Crayola 8. But as we do on stuff you should know we're not going to talk about all eight. We're just going to hit some highlights of those main colors and kind of talk a little bit about what most people feel. I'll go and start with red. I think we should talk about red because that's the color that kind of has the strongest reaction usually out of people, because red is just a very big, bold, brave choice in a lot of cases. They say if you have a red car, you're gonna get pulled over more often by cops. They report feelings of strength when you wear red or courage or aggression. It can actually increase your heart rate and energy level. And obviously red is why you paint stop signs. Red because it's a real eye grabber or a warning label is red because it'll catch your eye.

[Chuck]

Right. And another one, it depends on the shade or I guess the saturation or value. Ooh. But I like orange sometimes. Apparently a lot of people can't stand orange and I get that because there are colors that I can't stand.

[Josh]

Like what?

[Chuck]

I really don't like magenta.

[Josh]

What's magenta? Is that like a purple?

[Chuck]

Yeah, it's like a reddish purple. Like red. Ish. Purple.

[Josh]

What's your favorite color?

[Chuck]

Blue. Often like a robin's egg blue. But also I like royal blue's kind of nice dark blue. The bluer blues rather than the darker blues I usually kind of lean toward. But yeah, I also like pastels.

[Josh]

Oh, yeah, sure. You've got a nice stable of like pastel sweatshirts and things.

[Chuck]

I do.

[Josh]

I tend to depend on the season. I really kind of obviously love like burnt oranges and browns and sort of forest greens in the fall and winter. And I brighten up a bit. But I definitely love greens and browns and hues of orange the most.

[Chuck]

I think I see.

[Josh]

Yeah, but which one are we talking about? Yellow? No, orange.

[Chuck]

Well, we just kind of finished orange. I mean, it's just all over the place. I think there's just so many different weird associations. This list says flamboyance, energy, comfort, warmth. I mean, you can't really put four different things that are less associated with one another together.

[Josh]

Yeah, for sure. I do like black. I like wearing black. Things always have. Black is beautiful, black is powerful. Authoritativeness comes to mind, obviously, like strength. It can be overwhelming for a lot of people. Like usually painting walls. Black is. I mean, that's a big choice. I've got a couple of black walls in my house. Like my office, I have one wall that's black. But there are many shades within the black. Like when you go to pick out paint colors. Black is not just black. And obviously in westerns, the black hat symbolize good. The white hat symbolized like the bad guy and the good guy.

[Chuck]

And in hacking too.

[Josh]

Oh, okay.

[Chuck]

Yeah, it's true. Like there's black hat hackers and white hat hackers.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Chuck]

We have to at least talk about yellow.

[Josh]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Chuck]

This to me is like, I think it's the most all over color. Cause people like yellow, but it's associated with so many different things. Like we call people who are cowards, they're called yellow. Especially if you're an old timey person. There's also like this idea that you might cry longer in a yellow room, which I cannot find anything to actually back that up. It's almost just become legendary. But I guarantee there's some study that said that at some point, but it's also considered very cheerful. Right. I mean, yellow's like the color of the smiley face and the sun. And it's just. It depends on. Again, not just like your experiences with yellow or what your culture says yellow is, but your mood that day. Even more important, though, is there's not just one yellow. Like, you talked about, how there's all these different shades of black.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Chuck]

All the colors have different saturations, just how colorful they are, their value, the brightness, the hues, or the actual different colors. Like, all of these things, like a pale cream pastel yellow is going to make you feel differently than a neon yellow is. The neon yellow is going to make you run out and buy a Mountain Dew. The pastel creamy yellow is going to make you want to sit down and have tea.

[Josh]

Yeah, agreed. I got. I mean, I think the rest of these people. People can go do more color research if they're planning their wardrobe or they're painting their house or something.

[Chuck]

Yes.

[Josh]

My advice is to, you know, you got to get those small little tester sizes and just throw a little on the wall and see what you think, and then look at it in a bunch of different light, regular daylight, because that. That really can change the. The hue of a color is what kind of light you're using.

[Chuck]

Flashlight. Your power may go out at some point. You want to make sure it looks good in that, too.

[Josh]

Yeah, for sure.

[Chuck]

You got anything else then?

[Josh]

I got nothing else.

[Chuck]

All right, everybody. Short stuff is out.

[Josh]

Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.