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