Blue street lighting would decrease crimes and suicides

The field of criminology tries, day by day, to be updated on all the factors and prevention measures that achieve avoid or reduce crime that plagues the streets and endangers safety public. That is why in some countries, several organizations that ensure safety and prevention have chosen to change their public lighting to a blue one. The reason for this change is that, apparently, there are already several empirical results that suggest that streets lit with this type of light report a notable decrease in crime.

Here we detail this rare but important discovery.

Blue light seems to prevent suicide and crime

As early as 2000, the Scottish city of Glasgow He tried to change the color of the light emitted by the streetlights. The experiment allowed some of the busiest avenues in that city to acquire visual nuances different, thanks to the change of the traditional white, orange or yellow lights for lights with shades blue On that occasion, however, only an aesthetic purpose was being pursued.

A chance discovery, in Glasgow

However, with the passage of a few weeks, the authorities realized that in those regions where the blue light was placed there was a considerable decrease in crimes and suicides. This discovery quickly became a legislative proposal aimed at reducing crime on public roads and it was adopted and applied in other countries, despite the fact that at that time there was no scientific evidence or conclusive studies that related this phenomenon to blue light.

For example, in 2005, the city of Tokyo, Japan decided to implement this strategy in some of its streets, placing headlights with blue light and surprisingly, Japanese authorities reported a 9% decrease in crime in these areas. Subsequently, a Japanese railway company called Central Nipoon Expressway began to install panels in 2013 led type to project light of that color, in order to discourage those who attempt suicide by throwing themselves on the tracks. Those responsible for this change say that, after several years, this measure has reduced suicide attacks by 20%. Chance?

Studies and hypotheses

Although the decrease in crime appears to be directly related to public blue light, There are still no scientific results that conclusively support this theory.

As Tsuneo Suzuki, professor at Keio University, points out, “There is still a lot of data to analyze to find out what relationship exists between blue lighting and its "calming effect" that it causes on the people. What is clear is that blue lights are unusual. So people can feel missed and avoid standing out, crimes and suicides descend with this type of lighting. There is a lot of research related to color psychology, and one of them was investigating short-wavelength blue light. It has been shown to be a potentially effective treatment for seasonal affective disorders (a type of depression linked to the change of time). If there is new research that supports the benefits of blue lighting, we could find ourselves before a fantastic find. A cheap change that can help reduce crime rates in the areas, as well as suicide cases "

Other psychological effects of the color blue

Blue light is also attributed with another series of characteristics and benefits:

1. May cause insomnia

A study by Steven Lockey, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School showed that being exposed to blue light causes decreased sleep and even insomnia since this light suppresses the synthesis of melatonin, what is the sleep hormone

2. Increases heart rate and memory

Gikes Vandewalle, researcher at the University of Montreal, he found that blue light increases heart rate and improves memory, since using encephalograms he observed that a person exposed to this light performed memorization tasks more efficiently since the responses of the frontal and parietal cortex improved.

3. Improve learning

According to a German chronobiologist, Dieter Kunz, increasing the amount of blue in artificial light could increase performance and learning ability both in schools and in offices and other workplaces in closed spaces. It could even improve the health of patients in hospitals.

Psychology of the color blue

It is worth remembering that among the positive qualities in the psychology of the color blue we find that It is a kind, friendly color that tends to inspire confidence.. It is a color that practically everyone likes and it is the color that we most associate with friendship, harmony and trust. It also represents the color of the divine and the eternal since we associate it with the color of the sky. Continuous experience is also associated with this color, it is the color of everything we want to remain and everything we want to be eternal. It is one of the colors most associated with peace (after white) since, for example, the UN flag is that color, as well as that of the helmets of its peacekeepers.

It is highly probable that in-depth investigations will be carried out in the future that will make it possible to verify, with certainty, the link between the presence of blue lighting and the decrease in crime. This would provide a scientific basis and create a major change in all of our streets.