A comparative analysis of colour-emotion associations in 16-88-year-old adults from 31 countries.

As people age, they tend to spend more time indoors, and the colours in their surroundings may significantly impact their mood and overall well-being. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence to provide informed guidance on colour choices, irrespective of age group. To work towards informed choices, we investigated whether the associations between colours and emotions observed in younger individuals also apply to older adults. We recruited 7393 participants, aged between 16 and 88 years and coming from 31 countries. Each participant associated 12 colour terms with 20 emotion concepts and rated the intensity of each associated emotion. Different age groups exhibited highly similar patterns of colour-emotion associations (average similarity coefficient of .97), with subtle yet meaningful age-related differences. Adolescents associated the greatest number but the least positively biased emotions with colours. Older participants associated a smaller number but more intense and more positive emotions with all colour terms, displaying a positivity effect. Age also predicted arousal and power biases, varying by colour. Findings suggest parallels in colour-emotion associations between younger and older adults, with subtle but significant age-related variations. Future studies should next assess whether colour-emotion associations reflect what people actually feel when exposed to colour.

A test of the ecological valence theory of color preference, the case of Arabic.

Humans have systematic and reliable color preferences. The dominant account of color preference is that individuals like some colors more than others due to the valence of objects that they associate with colors (Ecological Valence Theory). In support of this theory, Palmer and Schloss show that the average valence of objects associated with a color, when weighted (the WAVE), explains up to 80% of the variation in color preference for adults from the United States (US). Here we investigate whether Ecological Valence Theory can account for the color preferences of female and male adults from Saudi Arabia to test how well the theory generalizes across cultures and how well it accounts for sex differences in color preference. We also extend the investigation of EVT by investigating whether abstract concept associations as well as object associations can account for preference. Saudi adults' color preferences, color object and concept associations, and association valence ratings were collected, and the WAVE was computed and correlated with preference ratings. The WAVE accounted for no more than half of the variance in Saudi color preferences, although there was some degree of sex specificity in the relationship of the WAVE and color preference. Adding abstract concept associations did not account for more variance than object associations alone, but the number of abstract concept associations did account for a significant amount of the variance in color preference for females, but not males. The findings converge with other cross-cultural studies in suggesting that the success of EVT in accounting for color preference varies across cultures and indicates that additional factors other than color associations are likely also at play.

Universal Patterns in Color-Emotion Associations Are Further Shaped by Linguistic and Geographic Proximity.

Many of us "see red," "feel blue," or "turn green with envy." Are such color-emotion associations fundamental to our shared cognitive architecture, or are they cultural creations learned through our languages and traditions? To answer these questions, we tested emotional associations of colors in 4,598 participants from 30 nations speaking 22 native languages. Participants associated 20 emotion concepts with 12 color terms. Pattern-similarity analyses revealed universal color-emotion associations (average similarity coefficient r = .88). However, local differences were also apparent. A machine-learning algorithm revealed that nation predicted color-emotion associations above and beyond those observed universally. Similarity was greater when nations were linguistically or geographically close. This study highlights robust universal color-emotion associations, further modulated by linguistic and geographic factors. These results pose further theoretical and empirical questions about the affective properties of color and may inform practice in applied domains, such as well-being and design.

An experimental study of gender and cultural differences in hue preference.

This paper investigates the influence of both gender and culture on color preference. Inspection of previous studies of color preference reveals that many of these studies have poor control over the colors that are shown-the chromatic co-ordinates of colors are either not noted or the illuminant that colors are shown under is not controlled. This means that conclusions about color preference are made using subjective terms for hue with little knowledge about the precise colors that were shown. However, recently, a new quantitative approach to investigating color preference has been proposed, where there is no need to summarize color preference using subjective terms for hue (Hurlbert and Ling, 2007; Ling and Hurlbert, 2007). This approach aims to quantitatively summarize hue preference in terms of weights on the two channels or "cardinal axes" underlying color vision. Here I further extend Hurlbert and Ling's (2007) approach to investigating color preference, by replicating their study but with Arabic and English participants, and to answer several questions: First, are there cultural differences in the shape of the overall preference curve for English and Arabic participants? Second, are there gender differences in the shape of the overall preference curve for English and Arabic participants? Thirty eight British and 71 Saudi Arabian (Arabic) participants were compared. Results revealed that Arabic and English preference curves were found to differ, yet there was greater similarity for Arabic and English males than Arabic and English females. There was also a sex difference that was present for both Arabic and English participants. The male curve is fairly similar for both samples: peak-preference is in the blue-green region, and a preference minimum is in the red-pink/purple region. For Arabic females the preference peak appears to be in the red-pink region, whilst for English females it is shifted toward purple/blue-green.