# Chromophobia

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{{Short description|Fear or aversion of colors}}
{{other uses}}
{{Infobox medical condition
 |name          = 
 |synonym       = Chromatophobia
 |image         = Bowl of Strawberries.jpg
 |alt           = A bowl of red strawberries
 |image_size    = 
 |caption       = The fear of the color red is called ''erythrophobia.''
 |pronounce     = 
 |specialty     =psychology
 |symptoms      = 
}}

'''Chromophobia''' (also known as '''chromatophobia'''<ref name="Campbell2009">{{cite book|last=Campbell|first=Robert Jean|title=Campbell's Psychiatric Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kpIs03n1hxkC&pg=PA186|access-date=22 August 2014|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195341591|pages=186–}}</ref>) is a persistent, [irrational fear](/source/Phobia) of, or aversion to, [color](/source/color)s and is usually a [conditioned response](/source/conditioned_response).<ref name="DoctorKahn2009">{{cite book|last1=Doctor|first1=Ronald M.|last2=Kahn|first2=Ada P.|last3=Adamec|first3=Christine|title=The Encyclopedia of Phobias, Fears, and Anxieties, Third Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2imSyZZDh0C&pg=PA146|access-date=22 August 2014|date=2009-01-01|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=9781438120980|pages=146–}}</ref> While actual clinical phobias to color are rare, colors can elicit [hormonal response](/source/Hormone)s and psychological reactions.<ref name="Ph.D.2009">{{cite book|last=Ph.D.|first=Gregory Korgeski|title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Phobias|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=guzoz2vF1SoC&pg=PT232|access-date=23 August 2014|date=2009-11-03|publisher=DK Publishing|isbn=9781101149546|pages=232–}}</ref>

Chromophobia may also refer to an aversion of use of color in products or design.<ref name="Bleicher2005">{{cite book|last=Bleicher|first=Steven|title=Contemporary Color Theory and Use|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YgbI5pPyIsYC&pg=PA17|access-date=22 August 2014|year=2005|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=9781401837402|pages=17–}}</ref> Within [cellular biology](/source/cellular_biology), "[chromophobic" cells](/source/Chromophobe_cell) are a classification of cells that do not attract [hematoxylin](/source/hematoxylin),<ref name="Cajal1999">{{cite book|last=Cajal|first=Santiago R.y|title=Texture of the Nervous System of Man and the Vertebrates: I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXReIORc2AkC&pg=PA185|access-date=22 August 2014|date=1999-03-02|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9783211830574|pages=185–}}</ref> and is related to [chromatolysis](/source/chromatolysis).<ref>{{cite book|title=Acta Physiologica Scandinavica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lSk2AQAAIAAJ|year=1950}}</ref>

==Terminology==
Names exist that mean fear of specific colors such as ''erythrophobia'' for the fear of [red](/source/red), ''xanthophobia'' for the fear of [yellow](/source/yellow) and ''leukophobia'' for the fear of [white](/source/white).<ref name="DoctorKahn2009"/> A fear of the color red may be associated with a fear of blood.<ref name="DoctorKahn2009"/>

==Overview==
In his book ''Chromophobia '' published in 2000, [David Batchelor](/source/David_Batchelor_(artist_and_writer)) says that in Western culture, color has often been treated as corrupting, foreign or superficial.<ref name="Galt2011">{{cite book|last=Galt|first=Rosalind|title=Pretty: Film and the Decorative Image|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LQrLoj3WcEAC&pg=PA44|access-date=22 August 2014|year=2011|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231153478|pages=44–}}</ref> Michael  Taussig states that the cultural aversion to color can be traced back a thousand years,<ref name="Taussig2009">{{cite book|last=Taussig|first=Michael|title=What Color Is the Sacred?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o2rZRWxejmQC|access-date=22 August 2014|date=2009-05-01|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226790060}}</ref> with Batchelor stating that it can be traced back to [Aristotle](/source/Aristotle)'s privileging of line over color.<ref name="Ratliff2009">{{cite book|last=Ratliff|first=Jonathan|title=The Exploration of Color Theory in Museum Education Using Works Found in the J. B. Speed Museum's Collection|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V3SCzxk3PVEC|access-date=22 August 2014|year=2009|isbn=9781109300321}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In a study, hatchling [loggerhead sea turtle](/source/loggerhead_sea_turtle)s 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Witherington |first1=Blair E |last2=Bjorndal |first2=Karen A |jstor=1446101 |title=Influences of wavelength and intensity on hatchling sea turtle phototaxis: implications for sea-finding behavior |journal=Copeia |volume=1991 |issue=4 |year=1991 |pages=1060–1069 |publisher=American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists|doi=10.2307/1446101}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Florida Marine Research Institute Technical Reports|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TtFJAAAAYAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Florida Marine Research Institute}}</ref> The [Mediterranean sand smelt](/source/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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Psychological Bulletin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tIK3AAAAIAAJ|year=1911|publisher=American Psychological Association}}</ref> In other experiments, [geese](/source/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.<ref name="CommonsHerrnstein1982">{{cite book|last1=Commons|first1=Michael L.|last2=Herrnstein|first2=Richard J.|last3=Wagner|first3=Allan R.|title=Acquisition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rXdRAAAAYAAJ|access-date=23 August 2014|year=1982|publisher=Ballinger Publishing Company|isbn=9780884107408}}</ref>

The title character in [Alfred Hitchcock](/source/Alfred_Hitchcock)'s ''[Marnie](/source/Marnie_(film))'' has an aversion to the color red caused by a trauma during her childhood<ref name="StromgrenNorden1984">{{cite book|last1=Stromgren|first1=Richard L.|last2=Norden|first2=Martin F.|title=Movies, a language in light|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s3hZAAAAMAAJ|access-date=23 August 2014|date=July 1984|publisher=Prentice-Hall|isbn=9780136043072}}</ref> which Hitchcock presents through expressionistic techniques, such as a [wash of red](/source/Wash_(visual_arts)) coloring a close up of Marnie.<ref name="RaubicheckSrebnick2011">{{cite book|last1=Raubicheck|first1=Walter|last2=Srebnick|first2=Walter|title=Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xW6kxB-nXSUC&pg=PA53|access-date=23 August 2014|year=2011|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252036484|pages=53–}}</ref>

The term colorphobia can also be used to refer to its literal etymological origin to refer to an apprehension towards image processing on one's vision and its visual perceptual property.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Harper|first1=Molly|title=Nice Girls Don't Live Forever|date=2009}}</ref> However, the term's association with a racial component has been used by public figures such as [Frederick Douglass](/source/Frederick_Douglass).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stephens|first1=Gregory|title=On Racial Frontiers|date=1999|page=1}}</ref>

Leukophobia often takes the form of a fixation on pale skin. Those with the phobia may make implausible assumptions such as paleness necessarily representing ill health or a [ghost](/source/ghost).<ref>{{cite book |title=An Excess of Phobias and Manias: A Compilation of Anxieties, Obsessions, and Compulsions that Push Many Over the Edge of Sanity |page=114 |first=John G. |last=Robertson |location=Los Angeles |publisher=Senior Scribe |year=2003 |isbn=9780963091925 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4PgawVAzB8C&q=leukophobia }}</ref> In other cases, leukophobia is directed more towards the symbolic meaning of whiteness, for instance in individuals who associate the color white with chastity and are opposed to or fear chastity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Adamec|first=Christine|title=The Encyclopedia of Phobias, Fears, and Anxieties |edition=3rd |year=2009|page=509}}</ref> In [Paul Beatty](/source/Paul_Beatty)'s novel ''Slumberland'', leukophobia refers to racism.<ref>{{cite book |title=Slumberland |page=[https://archive.org/details/slumberlandnovel00beat/page/185 185] |first=Paul |last=Beatty |location=New York |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |year=2008 |isbn=9781596912403 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/slumberlandnovel00beat/page/185 }}</ref>

== Variations ==

These words are uncommon even in medicine; some are only found in lists of exotic words.

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
|+Show
|Chrysophobia
|fear of the color orange
|-
|Chlorophobia
|fear of the color green
|-
|Cyanophobia
|fear of the color blue
|-
|Erythrophobia
|fear of the color red, maroon, and  also of blushing
|-
|Glaucophobia
|fear of the color gray
|-
|Kastanophobia
|fear of the color brown
|-
|Leukophobia
|fear of the color white
|-
|Melanophobia
|fear of the color black
|-
|Porphyrophobia
|fear of the color purple
|-
|Rhodophobia
|fear of the color pink and rose
|-
|Xanthophobia
|fear of the color yellow
|}

==See also==
* [List of phobias](/source/List_of_phobias)

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

{{Color topics}}

Category:Color
Category:Phobias

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Chromophobia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromophobia) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromophobia?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.