What does the color brown mean in Psychology?

The brown color (brown in Latin America), is a color frequently associated with neutrality, or with unpleasant emotions. It is a chromatic stimulus that is very present in nature, so it also has ambivalent meanings, as well as many different uses.

We will see below what the brown color is, how it is known in different places and, in general, what does the color brown mean attending to the sensations and feelings that it expresses.

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The color brown: what is it and how is it obtained?

As they are stimuli that are part of our daily environment, colors have been very present in our cultural development. For the same reason, they play an important role in our psychological expressions: they manage to evoke different emotions and even perceptions about the objects that surround us, even without our being aware of it.

Specifically, the brown color is obtained by mixing the three primary colors (generally using a little less blue and red, to avoid generating a grayish tone). In this sense

it is considered a tertiary color. In addition, as it is a mixture of different shades, it is considered a non-spectral color, which is visually located at a wavelength that is between 580 and 620 nm.

The term "brown" is taken from the French "marron" which means "chestnut", which is why it is the name by which this color is known in many parts of Europe. However, this color receives different names depending on the geographical location.

In several places in Latin America it is known as "brown", although, when it comes to naming the hair tone, the term "chestnut" or "chestnut" is used. Another common way of naming this color, according to the specific tonality, is through the word "chocolate", "cinnamon", "mahogany" or "honey", among others. Its oldest name is color "brown", and received it for being a color present in the leopard's fur.

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What does the color brown mean?

In color psychology studies, brown usually generates negative or neutral responses. For example, in the study by Clarke and Costall (2008) with university students in Germany, the 44% of the participants reported that coffee has very few, or even no, qualities emotional For their part, the participants who related this color to a particular emotion, added comments that describe the brown as "earthy" "mud" "natural" or phrases such as "does not make me feel at all" and "I have nothing to say, it's just coffee".

In the same sense, Manav (2007) finds that brown color is related to callousness and a depressed mood, or boredom. In the same way, it is related to adversity and depression. In his study of color preferences, brown ranks among the lowest scores.

On his part, the psychotherapist who authored the Color Test, Max Lüscher (cited by Rivera, 2001), described brown as a sensory and passively receptive color through his studies. However, this color not only indicates neutrality and bitterness, but, like all colors, can have an ambivalent meaning, which in this case is related to vigor, strength, solidarity, dignity and confidentiality.

In another study carried out with Mexican students, Rivera (2001) finds that the main descriptors of women about color coffee are "serious" "sad" "branch" "bears" "dark", and in the case of men the main descriptors are "coffee" "tobacco" "excrement" "life". The common descriptors that the participants had are "earth", "logs", "wood", "tree", "trunk", "chocolate", "seriousness", "brick", "ugly", "pretty".

In this sense, the same researcher concludes that the brown color is one of the colors that evoke objects and / or nouns (other of these are dark blue, green and yellow). Coffee also evokes qualifying adjectives (as well as color pink, gray and orange), a different from other colors that evoke emotions, such as white, red, light blue and even the black.

Cultural meanings

For her part, Eva Heller (2005) suggests that the combination of brown with other colors can generate opposite effects on both a psychological and cultural level. For this author, on a psychological level, brown it is related to the unfriendly, the anti-erotic, the unpleasant, the vulgarity and the foolishness.

Its accompaniment with the color blue can evoke at the same time a spiritual and earthly symbolism, whose translation can be of nobility and impunity. The opposite combination (brown-white) can at the same time evoke dirt-cleanliness. And its mixture with the color black is an indication of evil.

At the cultural level, their meanings have been similar, since relates to the color of autumn and withering, which in turn is the end of spring, a season more related to joyful emotions. In the same sense, it usually represents the old-fashioned and what is extinct, or also what gives the appearance of maturity and being a classic. For this reason, it is a color that has been very present in aesthetics and the most recent modern clothing. Despite this, according to Heller (2005) the color brown tends to be more rejected as age advances, and is in fact the most rejected color of all.

Main uses

On a daily basis, the color brown has been very present in decoration, since it is the raw material of various pieces of furniture. Not only that, but it is very present in nature. In this sense it is a color that has been very present in cave paintings.

Brown, as well as black and red, are often used to create dramatic effects in advertising and in cinematography, and they can also be used strategically to make a place feel more cozy. Especially when these colors do not mix with each other.

At the political level, brown is usually used in local or provincial flags, although at some point it was associated with Nazism, since it was used by stormtroopers. During the Middle Ages it was related to serfdom, by the color of the clothes when it was little dyed. For the same reason, it has traditionally been understood as an antagonist of elegance.

Bibliographic references:

• Clarke, T. and Costall, A. (2008). The Emotional Connotations of Color: A Qualitative Investigation. Color Research and application, 33 (5): 406-410.
• Heller, E. (2004). Color psychology. How colors act on feelings and reason. Editorial Gustavo Gili: Spain.
• Llorente, C. (2018). Comparative analysis of chromatic symbology in advertising. Nike in China and Spain. Vivat Academica. Communication Magazine, 142: 51-78.
• Manav, B. (2007). Color-Emotion Associations and Color Preferences: A Case Study for Residences. Color Research and Application, 32 (2): 145-151.
• Parodi Gastañeta, F. (2002). The chromosemiotic. The meaning of color in visual communication. Retrieved September 17, 2018. Available in http://200.62.146.19/bibvirtualdata/publicaciones/comunicacion/n3_2002/a07.pdf.
• Rivera, M. TO. (2001). Perception and meaning of color in different social groups. Magazine Imagen, 53: 74-83.