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One example of this is South Africa’s association of the color red with mourning. Some color meanings that initially seem purely cultural can be traced to historical innovations or associations.
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And sometimes color meanings can change over time, like how green’s association changed from the color of poison to the color of freshness and vitality (an association you’ll see today in many eco-conscious and plant-inspired brands).īeyond that, other color meanings appear to have developed purely culturally, like how the color orange is associated with happiness and prosperity in Japan and China. Others developed later from modern environments people found themselves contending with, like the color green’s association with poison and death for 18th century Europeans (due to the era’s green dye containing arsenic). Some are primal, like the color green’s association with growth and fresh vegetation.
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