Chromophobia

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Chromophobia (also known as chromatophobia[1] or chrematophobia[2]) is a persistent, irrational fear of, or aversion to, colors and is usually a conditioned response.[2] While actual clinical phobias to color are rare, colors can elicit hormonal responses and psychological reactions.[3]

Chromophobia may also refer to an aversion of use of color in products or design.[4] Within cellular biology, "chromophobic" cells are a classification of cells that do not attract hematoxylin,[5] and is related to chromatolysis.[6]

Names exist that mean fear of specific colors such as erythrophobia for the fear of red and leukophobia for the fear of white.[2] A fear of the color red may be associated with a fear of blood.[2]

In his book Chromophobia published in 2000, David Batchelor says that in Western culture, color has often been treated as corrupting, foreign or superficial.[7] Michael Taussig states that the cultural aversion to color can be traced back a thousand years,[8] with Batchelor stating that it can be traced back to Aristotle's privileging of line over color.[9]

In a study, hatchling Loggerhead sea turtles were found to have an aversion to lights in the yellow wave spectrum which is thought to be a characteristic that helps orient themselves toward the ocean.[10][11] The Mediterranean sand smelt, Atherina hepsetus, has shown an aversion to red objects placed next to a tank while it will investigate objects of other colors.[12] In other experiments, geese have been conditioned to have adverse reactions to foods of a particular color, although the reaction was not observed in reaction to colored water.[13]

The title character in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie has an aversion to the color red caused by a trauma during her childhood[14] which Hitchcock presents through expressionistic techniques, such as a wash of red coloring a close up of Marnie.[15]

See also

References

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