In terms of colour theory, in 1974 K.W Jacobs and F.E Hustmeyer demonstrated red to be more stimulating than green, and green more stimulating than blue and yellow. According to this study, a person left in a red room is continuously stimulated; where being subject to excessive stimuli can cause changes in breathing pattern, pulse, blood pressure and muscle tension. On the other hand, too little stimuli can lead to anxiousness, sleeplessness, excessive emotional reaction, loss of concentration and nervousness.
Further to this in 1981 Richard KĂĽller in his work Colour, Arousal and Performance-A Comparison of Three Experiments, he showed in studies that colour had a great effect on EEG reading, heart rate as well as emotional perceptions on objects, where the colours actually had an impact on the emotions and physiology on the subjects tested. Strong colours especially red and patterns put the brain into a more excited state for instance.
So it goes without saying that colour does have a direct physical response on our bodies and can play with our emotions. My question would be as to how much of this can be attributed to personal cultural and situational factors and challenging it in this way as opposed to accepting a standard influenced by popular marketing concepts in art, design, fashion and etc that seek to connect colours to emotions.