Calming the Nervous Flyer with Color

If you have ever flown with a nervous flyer, you are probably aware of the tell-tale signs that said flyer is about to get…well…nervous.

Sometimes it begins with a steady stream of pre-flight drinks. Or maybe it is a prescription. Many things exist to take the edge off of something that can be quite traumatic.

According to a recent report, however, soothing a nervous flyer isn’t merely a matter of self-medicating. Airlines have been helping to keep nervous flyers calm using some not-so-obvious strategies. The most unorthodox of which has to do with the color scheme of the airplane’s interior.

Have you ever noticed — regardless of what airline you fly and its brand colors — that the color blue dominates the interior of most airplanes, whether it is the color of the seats or the hints of blue in everything from the flight attendants’ uniforms to the magazine covers on display?

This is not just a happy accident, but a deliberate decision on the part of most airliners hoping to keep nervous flyers calmer. Subscribing to the school of thought that color can influence our emotions, blue in particular is often selected for its calming effect.

Consequently, popular airliner Boeing insists that blue is the most popular color on the majority of planes because it helps fight the fear of flying. And while the color likely hasn’t had such an obvious impact on flyers considering that we have all witnessed a nervous flyer or two before on at least one of our flights, psychologists suggest that without the color, the mood of the airplane would be entirely different.

Which makes me wonder about the nervous flyer in my life. I can’t imagine anything short of a tranquilizer gun and possibly a mallet that would calm this particular person once inside an airplane, never mind blue decor.