Color Psychology – The Meaning of The Color Yellow

Here at We Love Colors, we’re incredibly grateful for the ability to see in color. All the hues, saturation, and shades that fill our world and make them incredibly more interesting, fun, and passionate. Something we don’t always realize on a conscious level is the way that different colors (and color combinations) affect us in a subconscious way – but they totally do! It’s fascinating.



Every so often, we’ll be popping in here on the Friends Blog to dive into the psychology of a specific color as we explore the way colors can affect our moods, decisions, and more!
Today we’re going to talk about the meaning and psychology of the color yellow!

“How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun!”
– Vincent Van Gogh


Yellow is the brightest color in our rainbow. It’s vibrant and tends to catch our eye more quickly than any other color. It’s the third chakra color (located around your bellybutton) and is associated with transformation and self-esteem.

While yellow, like all colors, comes in many shades and hues, today we’re just talking about the general run-of-the-mill basic yellow. Yellow is strongly associated with happiness, optimism, and creativity. It can cheer us up, encourage communication, and stimulate mental activity.

  • Moods associated with yellow: Enthusiasm, optimism, happiness, friendliness, energetic, extroverted, playful
  • Topics and themes associated with yellow: Creativity, happiness, sunshine, Spring, enlightenment, communication, caution
  • Physical effects of yellow: Increased muscle energy, enhanced vision, stimulate the nervous system
  • Uses of yellow in business/marketing: Since it stimulates the mind, it’s good to use yellow for marketing in any business related to knowledge and creativity; It’s also great to use for playful settings like children’s playgrounds
  • Cultural meanings of yellow: In the western world we associate yellow not just with happiness but with caution (think road signs), in China it’s a very masculine color, in many countries (like Egypt) it’s the color for mourning, and in Africa yellow is usually used for people in a high authoritative position.


  • What it means if your aura is yellow: You’re likely bright and cheerful, intelligent, creative, fun-loving, happy, optimistic, connected with nature
  • Yellow is good for: Connecting with the head and not the heart, fast food business (when paired with red), making decisions, coming up with new ideas, getting attention from far away

  • Yellow is bad for: Easing anxiety, boosting courage, painting baby rooms, focusing,
  • Names of other shades of yellow: Goldenrod, Maize, Lemon, Chartreuse, Mustard
Is yellow your favorite color? Tell us how it makes you feel below! And be sure to check out all the yellow products you can get on our site!

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