Do We Perceive Colors Differently?

Have you ever wondered if the sky appears the same shade of blue to everyone who looks up? Or pondered whether your neighbour's "perfect red" tomato looks the same to them as it does to you? The answer is more complex — and more fascinating — than you might expect.

Colour perception begins in the eye, where cone cells sensitive to different wavelengths of light transmit signals to the brain for interpretation. Most people have three types of cones (trichromacy), but roughly 8% of men and 0.5% of women have colour vision deficiency, meaning they perceive colour differently at a biological level.

Culture and Language Shape Colour Perception

Beyond biology, culture and language profoundly influence how we categorise and experience colour. The Pirahã people of the Amazon have no specific colour terms in their language — they use descriptions of lightness and darkness instead. Japanese has a single word, "ao," that encompasses both blue and green in certain contexts.

Research by Paul Kay and Brent Berlin found that languages that have more colour terms tend to show faster recognition of colours in cognitive tasks. This suggests that having a word for something changes how quickly and distinctly we perceive it.

Implications for Design and Communication

Understanding variation in colour perception has practical implications for designers, educators, and therapists. Relying solely on colour to convey information — in charts, diagrams, or alerts — can exclude those with colour vision deficiencies. Accessible design accounts for this variation.

In therapeutic contexts, colour can carry culturally specific meanings. White, for example, is associated with mourning in many South Asian and East Asian cultures, while it symbolises purity in Western traditions. Being culturally attuned to these associations matters.