Do we see blue when we feel blue? Not as well as when our eyes are smiling through those rose-tinted glasses, apparently. The world in all its colorful beauty is known to be visually perceived by humans through 3 color axes–red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white. Recent experiments have shown that watching a sad video clip can decrease the ability to perceive colors on the blue-yellow axis, but not those on the red-green axis.

Given these revelations, should we consider rewriting the teal-jerking and cyan-ical lyrics of “Love Is Blue” and “Blue Balloon” to reflect the happiness–or at least neutrality–one should be experiencing in order to appreciate the subtle hues of blue?