How Do Bright Colours Appeal to Children?

Children tend to be attracted to the bright block colors of the color wheel rather than pastels or muted blends. Primary colors red, yellow and blue, and secondary colors green, orange and purple, are more appealing than light shades of pink and beige or neutral shades of gray and brown. For this reason, the food and beverage industries, as well as the toy industry, use bright colors to market children's products.

Children prefer brighter colors from an early age because their eyes are not fully developed yet. They perceive these colors better than fainter shades. Bright colors and contrasting colors stand out more in their field of vision. As children constantly strive to make sense of their environments, objects that are stark and bright are more stimulating and interesting. One of the first ways they learn to sort things by is color. Colors are some of the earlier words they tend to learn, which is why the easily named, more basic colors appeal to children.

Children learn from a young age to associate colors with particular objects. For instance, they often associate red with apples, orange with oranges, yellow with bananas or the sun, green with grass, blue with sky or water and purple with grapes. Bright colors are also known to have deeper associations. For instance, red is often connected with passion, green with nature and blue with sadness.