"Confidence isn't just felt—it's communicated, and color is one of the fastest, most primal channels through which that communication happens," explains Michelle Lewis, a color psychology expert and certified color analyst. "Before someone has heard your voice, read your resume or shaken your hand, they've already formed an impression based in part on the colors you're wearing."
"For confidence specifically, this matters because the right color doesn't just signal confidence to others," Lewis, who is also the founder of ColorAnalysis.com and The Color Institute and the author of Color Secrets: Learning The One Universal Language We Were Never Taught, tells Parade. "Through enclothed cognition, it can actively generate it in you."
"It's not just what you wear, it's what you believe that garment means," Lewis says. "Clothing carries symbolic weight, and that symbolic weight becomes part of how you inhabit your own mind and body. Color is one of the most powerful symbolic carriers in that equation."
Related: Color Psychologist Says These 5 Colors Are Worn Most by ‘Highly Intelligent’ People
"Those three things together are the perceptual backbone of confidence," she states.
The Psychology Behind Why Red Exudes Power
Lewis shares that there's documented evidence on the psychology of red, showing that this powerful color exudes confidence. For starters, she points to a University of Cambridge study published in Frontiers in Psychology that showed that people implicitly linked red with high-status symbols faster than any other color—and the effect held across genders and cultures.
Lewis also shares a 2018 meta-analysis that confirmed the red-romance effect in several studies. Oh, and another study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology found that people thought they were more attractive when wearing red than when wearing blue.
And then there's red's historical and cultural record, which is the stuff of ancient history.
Red is a powerful color to wear because it demands response, which Lewis calls its "greatest strength and its most important caveat." She explains that the European Journal of Social Psychology study mentioned above also noted that the "red effect" doesn't benefit everyone. For instance, people who don't like being the center of attention may find that red triggers anxiety, not confidence.
"The most confident color you can wear is the one that makes you feel most fully and boldly yourself," Lewis says. "Red is the most universally documented power signal. But a person who feels genuinely alive in cobalt blue will out-project someone uncomfortable in red every single time. Enclothed cognition works both ways—the garment has to mean something to you for it to work on you."
Red may not work for everyone, but there are other colors that project authority. You may feel more confident rocking one of these powerful colors:
"Blue doesn't demand attention the way red does—it subtly earns it," she says. "For people who lead with their minds rather than their presence, blue is often the most authentic power color available."
2. Deep green
"In my own production work dressing executives and public figures on camera, deep green consistently builds audience trust and loyalty while feeling very present," she states. "It reads as someone who has nothing to prove and nowhere to be but here."
Lewis describes purple as "the power color for the person whose authority comes from vision and depth rather than hierarchy or status."
"The color historically reserved for those whose power transcended the ordinary," she adds. "In contemporary professional contexts, [wearing purple] deliberately communicates that you operate at a different level of thinking than most people in the room. It's a quiet but unmistakable signal."
The Best Colors To Wear for High-Stakes Situations
What's the best color for a job interview? Performance review? How about a first date? Below, you can see Lewis' insight to learn how to dress for confidence with "power colors" to wear in any high-stakes situation.
What color represents confidence
First date
Romantic magnetism
Blue
Public speaking
Grounded authority
Blue
On-camera appearance
Visually compelling and composed
Orange
Large social gathering
Magnetic and warm
Now that you know how to dress for confidence using color psychology, it's worth noting a few hues that may not exude confidence.
1. Washed-out or very pale versions of any color
"It's not because the hue is wrong but because the lack of saturation reads as uncertainty," she explains. "A pale, faded color signals someone who started to make a statement and then thought better of it. Saturation carries conviction; its absence suggests the opposite."
"Yellow also connects to aposematism—the biological warning signal hardwired into human perception, meaning its brightness triggers alertness in the people around you rather than the settled authority you're trying to project," she explains. "In a high-stakes room, a color that makes nearly two-thirds of people restless is not your ally."
3. Orange
"It's one of the most socially connecting colors in the spectrum, and that's precisely the problem in high-stakes confidence contexts," Lewis states. "Orange invites people in. It doesn't signal that you're the one leading. For networking, it's a genuine asset. For commanding a room, it is a challenge."
Related: Color Psychologist Says the Color of Your Shoes Impacts You More Than You Think—Here's Why
Sources:
Michelle Lewis is a color psychology expert, certified color analyst, author and the founder of ColorAnalysis.com and The Color Institute. She is also the author of Color Secrets: Learning The One Universal Language We Were Never Taught.The Color Red Is Implicitly Associated With Social Status in the United Kingdom and China. Frontiers in Psychology.Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Red on Perceived Attractiveness. Evolutionary Psychology.The effect of red color on perceived self-attractiveness: Red color and self-attractiveness. European Journal of Social Psychology.The Effects of Color on the Moods of College Students. SAGE Open.Hence then, the article about color psychologist says wearing this color makes you appear instantly more confident was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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