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] In his book Chromophobia published in 2000, David Batchelor says that in Western culture, color has often been treated as corrupting, foreign or superficial.

[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.

[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.

Those with the phobia may make implausible assumptions such as paleness necessarily representing ill health or a ghost.