How Colors Affect You: What Science Reveals

By: William Lidwell, The Great Courses

Narrated by: William Lidwell

Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

There’s more to colors than just aesthetics. There’s an actual science behind how colors work on your eyes and your brain. And the secrets that scientists are uncovering offer astounding revelations about how colors influence the way you think, feel, and behave. And what’s truly surprising: 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. It’s a profound concept - one whose ramifications extend 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; why particular scenes in nature evoke peace, joy, or fear; and so much more. 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: What Science Reveals, 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 work on our brains to steer our thoughts and actions. You’ll go behind the scenes and examine the fascinating experiments and case studies that scientists have used to uncover what they know about color. And you’ll finally understand the (often hidden) significance behind the colors of your everyday life.

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. These lectures will give you a beautiful new perspective on color - one rooted in credible scientific knowledge and not popular myth.

©2013 The Great Courses (P)2013 The Teaching Company, LLC

Concise course which should be great for designers

I am working a lot with colors from their physical aspects (spectrum, wavelengths, etc...). In this sense this course said nothing. It did not even deeply explain what colors are. I am fine with that - just wanted this to be clear.
However, its explanations about the semantic interpretation of colors in our brain in different settings were all new to me and I believe they are indispensable for any designer who needs to work with colors.

Well done breaking color down

learned a lot and there were great examples used. However, i feel people need to surround themselves with all the colors all the time.

Very worthwhile

Great presentation on the research of colors and as a small business owner it has helped me view color choices differently.

Conspicuously Missing:

Neuroscience. Is fMRI data for color studies unavailable? Theories are all over other the place on the "evolution" of blue perception, with experiments pointing to cultural perception, and evolutionary theories to fish ancestry. It would be nice to see brains reacting to colors and would probably provide much more biological insight into why we make value judgments based on colors.
With all the theoretical complexity discussed, I find they miss out on a few very basic explanations for our psychological responses to color, especially black vs. white. The ability to see has profound evolutionary consequences for humans. Not only is it harder or impossible to see thinks like food, water, game, predators, or precipices, in the dark, its even hard to distinguish or identify darkly colored objects in the light. Not to mention that the absence of light altogether would spell the end of life as we know it: no light = no plants = the death of our entire food chain.
Visibility would also factor into the Savannah Theory in our need for visibility to see game, predators, etc. It would naturally trump desert pics (also with high visibility) because of its presence of green plant life, indicating the presence of water and food (vegetation, game).
Lastly, visibility is again determinant with black and white design - black and white, used together, providing the most clear rendering of any design - with clarity at its best on a white back drop.
P.S. dumb question, but why does red, placed NEXT to greenish-blue, make it look more green?

Great; just lacks visuals

Great info and performance, but it’s missing some key visuals the presenter references throughout the presentation. Still, I gained a lot out of it even though I have a fair amount of knowledge on the subject already. Even if I paid full price for this, I wouldn’t be disappointed. I understand the need to focus on just these specific colors, but I wish there was more information on all the colors of the color wheel; there are still a couple colors I don’t feel I have a grasp on or resource for.

Really neat lecture

Very interesting studies that make you think about your surroundings and presentations a little more. Really enjoyed it.

i love thes book

this is a short and precise course on the matter of color science , it sharpens the understanding of basic understanding of the influence of color in our every day life , served elegantly and in an easy to understand mannar.

Quick. Informative. Interesting.

Definitely going to use this information at work on sales calls.

The course was short, but covered colors in-depth.

Mind blowing

Many of us probably don't pay much attention to color but after having listened to this it has completely changed the way I view them.

Very interesting

The science behind how we perceive colors is very interesting. The narration is very good and the information in the text is captivating.