{{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 of, or aversion to, colors and is usually a 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 responses 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, "chromophobic" cells are a classification of cells that do not attract 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.<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, ''xanthophobia'' for the fear of yellow and ''leukophobia'' for the fear of 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 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'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 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.<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, ''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 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's ''Marnie'' 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 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.<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.<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'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
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
{{Color topics}}
Category:Color Category:Phobias