Colour and emotion
The colours of energy
Red, orange and bright yellow read as energy worldwide: the red of Shakti in India, fire in China, orange in the Netherlands.
Presented by ClearTrust Free for designers, students and the curious.
Strong, warm colours read as energy. Red comes first, then orange and bright yellow. People everywhere rate these colours as exciting and powerful, and cultures have long tied them to fire, blood, sun and heat. The feeling is about intensity as much as hue. A vivid blue looks more energetic than a dusty red. Claims that red raises performance or pulse have some support in single studies, but the effects are small, depend on the setting and sometimes run the other way.
What studies find
The 2025 review by Jonauskaite and Mohr found that warm and saturated colours are linked to high arousal, the alert and stirred-up end of feeling, and red most of all. A famous 2005 paper by Russell Hill and Robert Barton reported that fighters given red kit at the 2004 Athens Olympics won slightly more often than those in blue. Later work suggested that referees may favour red, and results in other sports are mixed. Andrew Elliot and colleagues found that a glimpse of red before a test lowered scores, perhaps because red signals danger and failure. So red stirs people. Whether that helps depends on the task.
In language
English has 'red-hot', 'red-blooded' and 'painting the town red'. Spanish says a contest is 'al rojo vivo', glowing red, when it reaches its peak. In Chinese a thriving business or a lively festival is honghuo, 'red and fiery'. Many languages talk about heat and fire and leave the colour unsaid. Hindi and Urdu have josh, a boiling up, and garmjoshi, warm enthusiasm. Germans are 'Feuer und Flamme', fire and flame, for something they are keen on. The colour follows from the image. Things that glow red are hot, and hot things, in nearly every language, are lively, eager and sometimes dangerous.
Around the world
In Hindu worship red is the colour of Shakti, divine energy in its female form. The goddess Durga is dressed in red, offered red hibiscus, and honoured with red sindoor powder at the close of Durga Puja in Bengal. In the Chinese system of five phases, red belongs to fire, summer and the south. Maasai herders in Kenya and Tanzania wear red cloth, a colour they link with strength and bravery. Dutch crowds turn orange for national matches and royal holidays. Brazil's yellow football shirt, adopted in the 1950s, has become a sign of flair. Each of these is local, and they agree all the same.
Where it is used
Sport, fast food, energy drinks and sales all use warm colours. Italian racing cars have been red, rosso corsa, since national racing colours were set early in the twentieth century. Sale signs are red in most countries. The popular claim that red and yellow make diners hungrier is repeated more often than it is tested. Safety clothing uses fluorescent orange and yellow because they stand out, which is a matter of visibility more than mood. For designers the working rule is to use strong warm colour in small amounts. It draws the eye to one action, and it tires people when it covers a whole screen or room.
Energy in colour, place by place
Red is the colour of Shakti, divine energy. Durga is dressed in red and offered red hibiscus, and in Bengal women apply red sindoor to one another as Durga Puja ends.
In the five phases of Chinese thought, red belongs to fire, summer and the south. A thriving life or business is 'red and fiery', honghuo.
Maasai herders wear red shuka cloth. Red is widely described by Maasai as the colour of strength, bravery and blood.
The Dutch wear orange, the colour of the royal House of Orange-Nassau, for national football matches and King's Day.
The yellow shirt of the national football team, adopted in the 1950s, is known as the canarinho and stands for attacking flair.
Rosso corsa, racing red, was Italy's national motor racing colour and remains the signature of Italian sports cars.
At the 2004 Athens Olympics, fighters assigned red kit won slightly more bouts than those in blue, a finding later studies have questioned.
From the table of meanings
On the last Tuesday night before Nowruz, people jump over small bonfires and chant a line that gives their yellow, meaning sickness, to the fire and takes its red, meaning health.
Festival and celebrationProtection and healingEnergySource: Chaharshanbe SuriRosso corsa, racing red, was the colour given to Italian cars in early international motor racing. Ferrari kept it, and it is now the colour people expect of the brand.
Festival and celebrationPrideEnergySource: Rosso corsaSupporters of the national football team are called the Red Devils. During the 2002 World Cup, crowds in red shirts filled the streets of Seoul.
Festival and celebrationPrideEnergySource: Red Devils (supporters club)National teams play in orange and are called Oranje. The craze that takes over streets and shops during big football tournaments has its own name, oranjegekte.
Festival and celebrationPrideEnergySource: OranjegekteThe flag is red with a black stripe edged in white. Red is for the warmth of the sun and the vitality of the people, black for their dedication and white for the sea.
Politics and protestEnergySource: Flag of Trinidad and TobagoColours that carry energy
Also part of it, and being written: Orange.
Sources and further reading
- Red on Wikipedia
- Hill and Barton, Red enhances human performance in contests (Nature, 2005)
- Elliot, Color and psychological functioning: a review of theoretical and empirical work (Frontiers in Psychology, 2015)
- Jonauskaite and Mohr, Do we feel colours? A systematic review of 128 years of research (Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 2025)
- UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage: Durga Puja in Kolkata
Original text by the Rang desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Meanings of colour vary from place to place and person to person. If we have something wrong, tell us.