chromophobia

Chromophobia (also known as chromatophobia or chrematophobia) is a persistent, irrational fear of, or aversion to, colors and is usually a conditioned response. While actual clinical phobias to color are rare, colors can elicit hormonal responses and psychological reactions. Chromophobia may also refer to an aversion of use of color in products or design. Within cellular biology, "chromophobic" cells are a classification of cells that do not attract hematoxylin, and is related to chromatolysis. 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. A fear of the color red may be associated with a fear of blood. 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. Michael Taussig states that the cultural aversion to color can be traced back a thousand years, with Batchelor stating that it can be traced back to Aristotle's privileging of line over color.