The color of a human heart depends on what you're looking at: the heart's inherent muscle tissue, or the blood it contains.
The Physical Color of a Heart
A human heart, being a muscle richly supplied with blood, appears red, similar to the color of meat. This is due to the presence of blood within the heart's tissues. As stated by Dr. DiBianco, "Because [the heart] is a muscle with lots of blood supplied to it, it looks red like meat."1, 2 However, without blood, a heart would appear white or translucent.3
- With blood: Red, similar to meat.
- Without blood: White or translucent.
The Symbolic Color of a Heart
The color associated with a heart is often influenced by cultural symbolism and emotional connotations. In many contexts, the heart is represented as red, symbolizing love and passion. However, various colored heart emojis have developed distinct meanings (e.g., black heart for deep love, yellow heart for friendship). 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 The use of color to represent different emotional states or aspects of the heart is also present, such as associating green with safety and purple with happy play. 9
References:
[1] National Geographic Kids, "The truth about your heart" and Dr. DiBianco's statement (multiple sources including reference provided)
[3] Quora, "What color is the human heart without blood?"
[4] Cosmopolitan, "What Do All the Heart Emojis Mean?"
[5] Times of India, "Heart emojis and their colour significance"
[6] Threads, "From Gen Z, the meaning of heart emoji colours"
[7] Quora, "What is the colour of your heart?"
[8] World Heart Federation, "Colours to Save Hearts"
[9] Heart-Mind Online, "What Colour is Your Heart?"
