Your colour is your superpower
[Applause]
raise your hand
if you have an item of clothes that is
purple
a few people in the audience now
raise your hand if you feel like that
item of clothing
defines who you are as a person
quite a few hundreds of years ago
purple was the real color that defined
whether you’d belong to royalty or not
in the mediterranean hundreds and
thousands of years ago
you’d need about 250 thousand of
teeny tiny sea snails to color a piece
of fabric
in this beautiful purple and it would
cost
so so much money that if you could
afford it
you’d really want to dress in it and
show everybody
how rich you are in fact it was so
expensive that
roughly until the 16th century it was
forbidden for the commoners
to wear purple only the royalty would be
allowed to do that
so that you could walk out and say
immediately
who you are colors have been defining
society as we know it for hundreds and
thousands of years too
in ancient egypt for example papyri and
pyramids would be decorated in yellow
and gold
to bring us closer to sun to the
divinity and joy
of the afterlife van gogh would use
yellow in his sunflowers
to bring summer a little bit closer to
you and make you feel cheerful
william turner one of the most famous
painters to use
indian yellow would use it to make you
feel
joy even in those paintings that in fact
depict tragedy
and even though yellow has been used for
happiness there is also a heavy history
of the scholar meaning sadness for
instance in nazi germany jews
would be marked with a yellow star
ships on the sea would fly a yellow flag
to show that people there are dying
and are quarantined
for hundreds and thousands of years
we’ve used color
to tell others what we cannot
giorgio o’keefe a famous painter said
that she used color
to say things that otherwise
had to be left unsaid and nature has
been communicating in color
since the beginning of times
evolutionary speaking animals have used
their colors
to bring mates around to attract their
attention there is birds who will be
multicolored and rainbowy
and yet there’s insects like this
butterfly
who have no color at all who blend
into the nature and remain unnoticed
and the communication is sometimes
unseen to us
look at this bird it’s a simple black
and yellow and yet to a different bird
it looks like that it’s full of color
and rainbow and in fact
all of us see colors a little bit
differently dogs for instance
have a completely different palette it’s
a little bit reduced
bees on the other hand where we see a
simple yellow flower
see a burst of red and white and blue
and we don’t have to look at animals at
all in fact
about a couple percent of you will see
a pack of skittles like that some
others will see it like this
and others will see it in this palette
and all of you will see one of these
four
and we only call normal what the
majority see
even though the reality is truly
different
my name is natalia i am a neuroscientist
and i’ve spent the past
about eight years of my life trying to
understand how we make sense of the
world around us
and how colors combine with other things
to give meaning and what was so striking
to me is to realize
that despite the fact that all of us see
the world in a different color palette
the colors in reality don’t actually
exist at all
this is what’s called the
electromagnetic spectrum it’s the waves
that surround us in our everyday life
and a little bit part of these waves the
same waves as you have in your microwave
or in your phone
can be seen by our eye it’s called the
visible spectrum
let’s take an example here is a red
apple
you might look at it and get immediately
excited because it looks so juicy and
red
but in fact the apple is not red what
happens
is that the electromagnetic waves get
reflected
from the surface of the apple and
perceived by your eye
the apple is not red the waves that
could reflect it from it
are also not red the red happens
in your brain you see something and
about
400 million cells and steps will happen
in your brain
to make you see the color red
and this is where the difference between
many of us comes
we have three types of special cells in
our eyes
wild birds have four which allows
us to see this
but birds see so much more
and the differences go way beyond the
biology let’s do a little experiment
here are three circles a b
and c i will ask you which one you think
does not belong raise your hand if you
think a
is the odd one out it doesn’t belong
there
majority what about b
a few people and what about c
a few more the striking majority of you
said
that it’s a and the reason for that is
because
for us culturally in ukrainian the
colors are
zelene
in english in fact they are just green
and blue
so for them it’s completely different
and for a little tribe
in mexico called the tarahumara tribe
this entire color is just one
sio name so even though for most of you
a was the odd one out
for them all of these colors are the
same because they are
called the same now what this really
shows us
is that the division of color is
artificial
we have the spectrum of light and
through culture society history
we learn to divide it into arbitrary
and artificial sections now this
division is so arbitrary that in fact
it’s possible to map
colors onto sounds
this happened in the 1800s where a
physicist
did exactly that he drew parallels
between
the sound waves and the colors
and said that they match together two
different realities of the world
were brought into one unite
complex
and for about 10 of our population this
happens every day there is a condition
called synesthesia
and this condition describes where for
some reason
you can match colors and other senses to
something completely different
for example some people always know
that red is the number four
or monday is always yellow
and these mappings are so strong that
they are unable to get rid of them
and in fact when i was a little girl and
something was hurting i would ask my mom
it hurts i don’t know what to do and
she’d tell me okay tell me how much it
hurts
and i couldn’t put a number on it i
couldn’t say it hurts a lot or a little
i would just say it hurts yellow
whatever that means and thanks for my
mom to understanding that
but i was describing my pains in colors
and many people keep that ability for
the entirety of their life
now this mapping is fascinating here’s a
picture of a brain and we have a little
area highlighted there it’s called the
orbit of frontal cortex
this part of our brain is responsible
for
helping us make decisions evaluating
what’s more important what’s not
and studies show that when we see a
color that matches with something else
that corresponds to it
such as the yellow color with the smell
of a lemon
this brain area is more active
what this really means is that if our
colors
support and match whatever it
is that is happening in our life
our brain will be faster and more
efficient
at making decisions now let’s look at
some fun examples of that
earlier today you had an opportunity to
rate different colored m
ms and this is a study that has been
done multiple times in research
and what research has shown is that
consistently and repeatedly
people will rate red m ms as sweeter
compared to green ones so red because
it’s so strongly associated with
sweetness and ripeness
makes the same m m’s that have the same
composition
taste different a different study showed
that women who put pictures on their
dating profiles wearing red
have a much higher chance of attracting
a guy
compared to women in a blue dress and
that’s because for us
red is such a strong sexual color that
when we dress in it
we almost scream to attract attention
it’s also a color of power if we look at
the ties that u.s presidential
candidates wore for their election
debates
about 66 of them were read
now it’s up to you to decide whether
this is a coincidence or whether
obama and trump are trying to tell us
that they are the leader that we should
go for
and the leadership of red is so striking
that on the flag of south africa
it’s there to depict violence that led
to freedom
on the other hand for example we have
green green is such a strong color for
us to feel peace and calmness
that studies show that when you exercise
you will feel much better so if you look
at a green screen while exercising
compared to a black and white one or red
one you will feel more energized and
more relaxed afterwards
and you can also exercise your brain and
your mind
it has been shown that if you write your
notes in green
or on green post-its you will actually
remember better
because you will be more at peace more
calm and more focused
so if you have a test coming up or an
exam coming up soon
write those post-its in green and
surround yourself with green plants
now when it comes to our surroundings
and environment color also plays a huge
role
let’s look at this example here we see
two interiors one of them has a yellow
light
and another one has a white light
studies show that in the yellow light we
will feel more calm
and in the white light we will feel more
energized and ready to work
and the reason for that is millions of
years ago when you didn’t have your
alarm clock on your iphone
or your blinds on the windows the sun
would tell you
and guide your behavior you’d wake up in
the morning with a soft yellow light
and you’d go to sleep when you’re tired
with a soft yellow
light and yet during the day
when the sun wasn’t venice and white
you’d have to work
now most of us work in offices like this
one right now they’re pretty dull and
boring
and yet studies have repeatedly shown
that if we put ourselves in an office
kind of like this one our productivity
will rise
about 20 and this is because one in an
environment that
energizes and makes us feel different
things red for passion green for peace
we will allow ourselves to dream
and imagine
and yet despite the fact that color
communicates and guides us so much
recently we are diverting from it
for instance this is the color palette
for fashion shows of 2019.
it’s pretty subdued and basic and in
fact
in recent years fashion has shifted from
colors
to complete absence of color
perhaps in an attempt to dive attention
away
from the garment and to us
as individuals it’s no more about the
purple you wear
it’s about who you are
and at the same time though we use a
variety of color a palette of the
rainbow
to signify that we’re all different
diversity movements all across the world
will use the rainbow flag
to show that there is no boundaries and
limits to us
modern art installations for example
like this one by gabriel dave
will use a rainbow of colors to help us
understand
that there is no limit to our
imagination that even having
15 strings of colored thread
we can create an endless variety of
feelings
mark rotco said
i am not interested in the relationship
of color
i am interested only in expressing with
color
the basic human emotions
tragedy ecstasy
and doom
so whenever you feel that tragedy that
you cannot put in words
remember that you can use a color
whenever you feel the ecstasy that
cannot be expressed in language
remember that your brain was given the
ability to take
the world that is otherwise colorless
and transform it
into limitless possibilities
whenever you feel the doom remember that
you can take a color
and help yourself and others understand
you
the tragedy the ecstasy the doom
the passion the lust and the peace
have been communicated to us by nature
and each other through color for
centuries
so don’t forget the power that you have
to use the color to express who you are
thank you
[Music]
[Applause]
you