Hypnotic Induction of Colored Environments

Although color preferences have been studied as a function of personality (Warner, 1949) , little systematic attention has been given to the effect of color on mood. A comprehensive theory of such effects has been advanced by Birren ( 1961 ) . Red, orange, yellow, green and blue describe a sequence from excitation to inhibition. Purple, white, gray and black are emotionally neutral, with black negative and gray passive. This study is an attempt to explore Birren's hypothesis by means of posthypnotic suggestion. A male, age 22, unfamiliar with Birren's work, and capable of somnambulism under hypnosis, was hypnotized and instructed that everything he looked at would seem a given color. Even if another color, it would still seem tinged with the suggested color. Three placebo runs in which hypnosis was induced, but no posthypnotic suggestions given, were interspersed. After 5 hr., S was asked how his day had seemed and the suggestion was removed. O n all of the 1 5 days, prehypnotic reports of how he felt were similar. Posthypnotic reports of his feeings were as follows: Red: active, aggressive (not hostile), outgoing; orange: bright, happy; yellow: bright, happy, energetic, industrious; green: sick, bilious, dreary; blue: slow, calm, mildly depressing; white: normal, but slightly negative; black: heavy, sad, depressed, dreary, unhappy; purple: bad, depressed, persecuted, paranoid; placebo: normal. An instruction that all colors would seem intensified made him feel happy and alert, that color intensity would seem diminished made him feel slow and draggy. These data accord with Birren's theory and especially his reports of associations to colored light. The color intensity f ind~ngs replicate those of Fogel and Hoffer ( 1 9 6 2 ) . These responses may, however, represent culrurally conditioned color stereotypes, although Birren has noted that color stereotypes are often quite similar across disparate cultures. Stereotypes may be activiated by and affect perceptual experience. They d o not alter the fact of the behavioral change, but raise the question of whether it is a phenomenon or an epiphenomenon of perceptual experience. This is an important moot question in any study of the relation of perception and personality.