We give strong unconscious reactions to different colours, therefore - knowingly or unknowingly - we are bombarded by "colour-coded" stimuli many times a day. I have a passion for colours since my very early teenage years. I even aspired to be an artist for a while, but then I finally chose psychology and for several years after graduation I was involved in a research dealing with the symbolism of colours. In this series, I would like to share this passion with you by having a closer look at the meaning of one colour at a time.

After exploring the meaning of red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, brown, pink and turquoise, we continue our journey with the so-called "neutrals" or "non-colours" as some call them. Let me introduce you the éminence grise of the colour palette, grey that is much more than a modest background colour as you will soon learn.

Grey is impartial

Being half way between black and white, grey is the universal symbol of neutrality, objectivity and detachedness. As it takes no sides, it often represents impartial judgement and is frequently associated with the judicial system, fairness and truth. Lady Justice (or Iustitia) is often depicted wearing a light grey robe with a scales and a sword in her hands. This is the reason why grey is associated with balance, equilibrium and the middle of the road.

As Max Lüscher described it in his book (1):

"Grey is a Berlin Wall, an Iron Curtain, on either side of which is a different approach."

It is probably not a coincidence that many accounting, auditing and legal firms use grey as a dominant colour in their logos and corporate design (for example SGS, EY, Cohn & Reznick, AuditFile, Cooley, SPR Legal, just to mention a few).

Grey is smart

What is common in Wikipedia, Forbes Magazine, Word Press and Washington State University? You surely know: they all have grey logos!

When it comes to grey, many of us associate to the grey matter of our brain or the gray hair of wise old men - just think of Galdalf the Grey as a typical example. Grey is a symbol of knowledge, intelligence, experience, maturity and wisdom. As you can read in the Wisdom of Solomon (4,9):

"Honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the grey hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age."

Another reason for associating grey with intellect is the "unemotional" character of this colour. Grey is an achromatic colour, which means that it lacks the vivid energy as well as the emotional charge of chromatic colours. It's distant and formal, therefore it is closely connected to clear thoughts and logical reasoning.

Grey is melancholic

It is the colour of the cloudy-foggy sky, rainy days as well as ash and rocks, which means that bad mood, pessimism and lack of energy can also be represented by grey (especially the darker tones).
Grey simply lacks energy, so it cannot stimulate or excite us. A pure grey tone can be dull and boring in itself, so an excessive use of it can lead to fatigue and depressive conditions.
As the famous color historian Eva Heller wrote in her book (cited here):

"grey is too weak to be considered masculine, but too menacing to be considered a feminine color. It is neither warm nor cold, neither materialor spiritual. With grey, nothing seems to be decided."

Probably this is why grey is rarely used in itself in either interior design or in clothing (in clothes grey wool is usually mixed with other colours to make the shades warmer or colder). As a background, grey makes softer colours shine more brightly

Grey is industrial

This is the colour of steel and concrete as well as many other inventions of modern industry, which made grey (especially the tones close to silver) a very "high-tech" colour. It symbolises technology, advancement, future and modernity.

Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Honda, Lexus and Apple all use these characteristics when they are communicating their corporate values with a stylish grey logo.

What does grey tell about you…

If you choose grey as your favourite colour, then you are a person who likes to be in the background rather than in the front. You do not like exposure (maybe do not have the confidence to jump onto the stage), moreover even everyday chatting and conversations are difficult for you, you prefer to keep talking at a minimum level. You live an ordinary and very well-scheduled life without any larger swings or bigger surprises.

You prefer to play safe and stay outside, remain unattached in the majority of situations. You have very strong self-protective mechanisms that can help you to achieve this. It is difficult to touch you emotionally, you are very closed, reserved and distant in your relationships. You prefer to hide your feelings and thoughts, keep them for yourself.

You are a hard worker, but you prefer to work alone, you do not like messy and noisy office environments, you choose to be alone in a room, if that's possible.

In the following two chapters I summarised a few interesting details that I found about the colour grey. The sources are indicated in brackets after the lines and are referring to the appropriate book/article listed among the literature used.

Grey in different cultures

• Gray is the colour of Lent, mourning and repentance in Christianity. (5)
• In the Middle Ages, grey was the colour of undyed wool which was worn by the poor and by monks of several orders, which made grey (together with brown) a symbol of poverty. In England and Scotland monks of the Franciscan order were commonly known as the grey friars. Monks are often dressed in grey in Asia, as well. (6)
• In folklore, grey often represents goblins, elves and other legendary creatures, in illustrated fairy tale books, the clothes (or sometimes the skin) of these figures are grey. (6)
• In Chinese language the word for grey ("hui") has several meanings, for example ash, dust, depressed and disappointed, which is quite close to Western symbolic meanings of this word.(10)

Interesting facts about grey

• Grey became a very fashionable colour in the 18th century worn by the nobility and wealthy men and women. The grey business suit appeared in the mid-19th century in London replacing the more colourful men's clothing early in the century. Grey supremacy in this field vanished gradually at the beginning of the 21st century, when dark blue became more popular. (6)
• Grey also became a common colour for military uniforms during the American Civil War and the Franco-German War. The reason behind this was that using rifles with longer range, soldiers in grey were less visible as targets than those in blue or red. This is why grey is often associated with war, like on the famous grey-toned painting, Guernica by Pablo Picasso. (6)
• The human eye can distinguish about 500 shades of gray. (5)
• Grey is not very popular: in a research only one percent of respondents mentioned it as their favorite colour. (6)
• When you switch off the lights in a room, for a short time you'll see a dark gray color which experts call eigengrau, meaning a uniform gray background. Nowadays, it is more commonly referred to as "visual noise" or "background adaptation". (7)
• Colour preference can indicate depression. In an experiment researchers asked respondents to draw self-portraits and interestingly they found that there was a
  greater occurrence of dark grey by those with a depressive tendency. (8)
• Despite the fact that grey sometimes symbolically means maturity, reserachers found that young people like it more than older ones. (9)

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If you are interested, here you can read the previous parts in this series:

Introduction
Fiery Red
Cool Blue
Golden Yellow
Forest Green
Vivid Orange
Royal Purple
Chocolate Brown
Baby Pink
Mesmerizing Turquoise

Literature used

1. Max Lüscher: "The Lüscher Colour Test", Remarkable Test That Reveals Your Personality Through Color
2. David Piper: Understanding Art - Appreciation, Method and Technique (1981)
3. Eva Heller: Psychologie de la couleur; effets et symboliques. Editions Pyramid (2009)
4. Margaret Walch: Living Colors - A Definitive Guide to Color Palettes Through the Ages, Chronicle Books (1995)
5. http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-gray-4378#.WnL_HSOZO8U
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigengrau
8. Wu, F.-G., Chang, E., & Lee, Y.-J. (2009). Manifestation of depressive tendency in color perception and colors utilized in creating a self-portrait. Color Research & Application, 34(1), 84-92.
9. Ou, L.-C., Luo, M. R., Sun, P.-L., Hu, N.-C., & Chen, H.-S. (2012). Age effects on colour emotion, preference, and harmony. Color Research & Application, 37(2), 92-105.
10. The Cultural Meaning of Color Grey in Western and Chinese Cultures (https://wenku.baidu.com/view/4bf52f2e0722192e4536f6e9.html)

Sources of pictures

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