Link #76: The Colour Pink Can Calm You Down!

May 27, 2015

Link #76: The Colour Pink Can Calm You Down!

Shades of pink — Some tints and shades of pink by Booyabazooka, Mizunoryu, Badseed, Jacobolus PD image

Our last article explained how an average Swiss individual eats about 240 bars of chocolate in one year. Any country that not only produces a lot of chocolate but also consumes it in boatloads has to be one of the calmer nations in the world.

In addition to this, Switzerland has one of the best landscapes in the world too. Along with this, they have certain prison cells painted pink to help inmates calm down too. Wait. What? You read that right. Some prisons in Switzerland actually have pink rooms to calm down inmates. How does this work? Consider this.

Why Are Prison Cells Painted Pink in Switzerland?

pink_prison_cell — Pink prison cells. Image credit: MarkDoliner cc2.0

About 30 cells in a prison in Switzerland have been painted pink. The idea is that the colour pink can help the inmates calm down quicker. The colour has the capability to leach out anger from a person in a quarter of an hour.

The painting of the prison cells comes under the much wider Project Cool Down Pink. The Project’s objective is to see how the colour pink can be used in specific situations to help people calm down.

Where Else Is The Project Cool Down Pink Being Implemented?

pink_corridor_hospital — Pink corridor in a hospital. Image credit: outofmytree cc2.0

It isn’t only the prisons where the Project Cool Down Pink is being implemented and the results being noted. The colour pink is being tried in various other situations and locations too.

For instance, certain police stations in Switzerland have been given pink drunk tanks where drunken people are left to calm down. The policemen at the relevant stations report that drunken people put in the pink drunk tanks calmed down and went to sleep much faster than drunken people put in other rooms.

This project is being implemented in other institutions and locations as well, such as emergency locations like hospitals and ambulances, protection rooms, panic rooms, airports, psychiatric institutions, violent zones and even businesses.

What Is the Psychological Impact of the Colour Pink?

feminine_nature_of_the_colour_pink — Surround me in the softness of your love by Purple Sherbet Photography cc2.0

Pink is known to calm down people who are angry or excited by lowering their blood pressure. Moreover, the colour pink is also nonthreatening and feminine. There was one study in which male weightlifters seemed to lose their strength and power in a pink room while the women felt stronger. This feminine nature of the colour pink ended up calming the prison inmates but also deprived them of their masculine strength and aggression.

The Colour Pink Is Being Used by a Sports Team

pink_locker_room_Kinnick_Stadium — Inside the visitor’s pink locker room inside Kinnick Stadium. Former Iowa coach Hayden Fry had the locker room painted pink. By Asolsma1988 PD image

The colour pink’s psychological effects are commonly known. In fact, they’re so well known that the team, Iowa Hawkeyes, decided to paint the away room in its stadium pink. The decision was made by their manager, Hayden Fry, who believed that the pink coloured away dressing room would give his team an edge during the game.

Fry’s logic was that when the away team spends time in the pink away dressing room, they’ll become more passive and relaxed. This will prevent them from putting down their marker during the game.