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A comparative analysis of colour–emotion associations in 16–88-year-old adults from 31 countries
University of Lausanne, Switzerland; University of Vienna, Austria.
University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.
De La Salle University, Philippines.
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2024 (English)In: British Journal of Psychology, ISSN 0007-1269, E-ISSN 2044-8295, Vol. 115, no 2, p. 275-Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

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. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley and Sons Ltd , 2024. Vol. 115, no 2, p. 275-
Keywords [en]
adolescent; adult; age; aged; aging; arousal; article; color; controlled study; cultural psychology; diagnosis; emotion; female; groups by age; human; human experiment; major clinical study; male; mood; normal human; perception; young adult
National Category
Applied Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-68805DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12687Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85178488112OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-68805DiVA, id: diva2:1825210
Note

DJ was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), providing a Postdoc. Mobility (P500PS_202956) and a Return CH Postdoc. Mobility (P5R5PS_217715) fellowship grants. CM was supported by the SNSF project funding grant (100014_182138), also supporting DE's doctoral studies. GW was supported by a research grant from the Kozminski University to collect elderly data in Poland. YG was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (22‐18‐00407). TT was supported by the research grant JSPS KAKENHI no. JP20K22269 to collect data in Japan. VB collected data in Italy and was not involved in colour term translation into Chinese and Russian. We would like to thank collaborators of the International Colour–Emotion Association Survey who contributed to translations (see them listed in Jonauskaite et al., 2020, ). We are also grateful to Nigar Mammadli (Azerbaijan) and Riina Martinson (Estonia) for collecting some data in their respective countries. Finally, we are grateful to all the participants who took part in the study. We provide data in open access on OSF: https://osf.io/873df/ . Psychological Science

Available from: 2024-01-09 Created: 2024-01-09 Last updated: 2024-07-28Bibliographically approved

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