Purple and yellow are physiologically reciprocal colors perceived as beauty

Evidence

Our eyes are so sensitive to these wavelengths that the cones can get oversaturated and the stimulus pours over onto the other cells. A printmaker I know showed me that if you stare for a long time at a block of yellow and then shift your gaze to a white sheet of paper, you will see it, for a moment, as violet. This phenomenon—the colored afterimage— occurs because there is energetic reciprocity between purple and yellow pigments, which goldenrod and asters knew well before we did. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 164

Categorization

• CANDY: Stare at yellow, look at white paper, see violet — a light party trick with a reciprocity lesson tucked in.
• XREF: connects to: Color aesthetics are culturally coded, not universally fixed

Broader Connections

• Color aesthetics are culturally coded, not universally fixed #qualifies (0.72)