Chromophobia
Other names	Chromatophobia
The fear of the color red is called erythrophobia.
Specialty	Psychology

Chromophobia (also known as chromatophobia^[1] or chrematophobia^[2]) is a persistent, irrational fear of, or aversion to, colors and is usually a conditioned response.^[2] While actual clinical phobias to color are rare, colors can elicit hormonal responses and psychological reactions.^[3]

Chromophobia may also refer to an aversion of use of color in products or design.^[4] Within cellular biology, "chromophobic" cells are a classification of cells that do not attract hematoxylin,^[5] and is related to chromatolysis.^[6]

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.^[2] A fear of the color red may be associated with a fear of blood.^[2]

In his book Chromophobia published in 2000, David Batchelor says that in Western culture, color has often been treated as corrupting, foreign or superficial.^[7] Michael Taussig states that the cultural aversion to color can be traced back a thousand years,^[8] with Batchelor stating that it can be traced back to Aristotle's privileging of line over color.^[9]

In a study, hatchling loggerhead sea turtles were found to have an aversion to lights in the yellow wave spectrum which is thought to be a characteristic that helps orient themselves toward the ocean.^[10][11] The Mediterranean sand smelt, Atherina hepsetus, has shown an aversion to red objects placed next to a tank while it will investigate objects of other colors.^[12] In other experiments, geese have been conditioned to have adverse reactions to foods of a particular color, although the reaction was not observed in reaction to colored water.^[13]

The title character in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie has an aversion to the color red caused by a trauma during her childhood^[14] which Hitchcock presents through expressionistic techniques, such as a wash of red coloring a close up of Marnie.^[15]

The term colorphobia can also be used to refer to its literal etymological origin to refer to an apprehension towards image processing on one's vision and its visual perceptual property.^[16] However, the term's association with a racial component has been used by public figures such as Frederick Douglass.^[17]

Leukophobia often takes the form of a fixation on pale skin. Those with the phobia may make implausible assumptions such as paleness necessarily representing ill health or a ghost.^[18] In other cases, leukophobia is directed more towards the symbolic meaning of whiteness, for instance in individuals who associate the color white with chastity and are opposed to or fear chastity.^[19] In Paul Beatty's novel Slumberland, leukophobia refers to racism.^[20]

• List of phobias