The True Colours of School Subjects - The Science Behind it

Sep 15, 2025
3 min read

By Isabella Scotti

Everyone has at one point or another assigned colours to their subjects, and some of you may have wondered why you chose that specific colour.

There are many causes of this colour association, however an even stranger phenomenon is how many people agree on the same colours.

The Science Behind it

A theory of why we associate colours with different meanings is the Stroop effect. The Stroop effect is a cognitive phenomenon where when given an image of colours written in different colours to their name, there is a delay in recognition when asked about the font colour rather than the word itself. This is due to the fact that reading takes less time to process than visual stimuli. How does this relate to school subjects? Well, it shows that words are often linked to an image or colour. It could be used to support the argument that when presented with a subject it can be linked to a colour in a person's head. This theory is very similar to synesthesia. Synesthesia affects 4.4% of the world population, the most common type and the one I view relevant here is Grapheme Colour synesthesia. It is a condition where a person will see colour attached to different letters or words. Some believe that whatever causes synesthesia could be the same thing that causes other word colour associations.

Another theory is that the perceived personality of different colours can be associated with how someone feels about a subject. Math, the most divisive subject, is theorised to be split into red for those who find it difficult and intense and blue for those who find it calming and fun to do. My own data does not support this claim however my sample size is quite small and mostly from the same school and age group.

The final theory and what I think is the most accurate is that it’s tied to your memory. Whether it’s consciously or not something outside you, typically from childhood, has influenced why you see each subject as a different colour, for example the colour of your book you write in or the colour of your onenote folder. One person told me “I see maths as purple because of the grid books that are purple” another comment of note is “i genuinely just don’t think of geo ever” or similarly “idk i don’t do it lol.” These throw away comments told me a lot. When someone doesn’t do the subject or hasn’t done the subject in a while there often isn’t a colour associated. I believe this is because if there is no importance about a subject there is no need to keep it tied to a memory.

Through my own data collection I noticed a few trends. Firstly, the subjects that are seen as ‘core’ aka subjects that are done throughout all of high school, had less variation in the colours and would have a lot more people in agreement, whereas subjects like integrated, textiles and commerce were much more split. This goes back to a bit of what I said earlier - how when a colour isn’t thought about as much there often isn’t a colour associated. This led to a wide variety in suggestions, notably 13 different colours suggested for integrated compared to just 5 for mathematics. There were only three colours suggested for every subject. They are; blue, purple and orange. Now I do not understand why this is but it was a trend I think worth mentioning.

Research results

I conduct some of my own research with a simple form asking people what they thought different colours are. Now finally, the only reason you clicked on this article is to find out what subject every colour really is;

English

YELLOW!!!!!