bs_bs_banner Asian Journal of Social Psychology

Asian Journal of Social Psychology (2014), 17, 152–158 DOI: 10.1111/ajsp.12050

Blue or red? The effects of colour on the emotions of

Chinese people
Tingting Wang, Siyun Shu and Lei Mo
South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

Two experiments were performed to examine the effects of red and blue on the emotional pleasure of Chinese
people. Experiment 1 explored the effects of the ‘physical’ colours red and blue on emotion, and the results
showed that red induced positive and negative emotion, while blue only induced positive emotion. Experiment
2 further explored the effects of the ‘verbal’ colours red and blue on emotion, and the results showed that red
induced only positive emotion, while blue induced neither positive nor negative emotion. The findings indicate
that the influence of colour on emotion is rooted in both natural and social associations. For Chinese, the
associations between blue and positive emotion, and red and negative emotion, were natural associations;
however, the associations between red and positive emotion were social associations. Moreover, physical
colour and verbal colour stimuli induced emotions by activating different mechanisms: physical colour
induced emotions via both natural and social associations, whereas verbal colour induced emotions via social
associations.

Key words: associations, colour, emotion, natural, pleasure, sociocultural.

Colour plays a key role in influencing the minds and behav-
iours of both animals and humans. A large amount of
research has been done to investigate the effects of colour
on emotion, and most has focused on red and blue.
According to Mehrabian and Russell (1974), emotion
has three dimensions, including arousal, dominance, and
pleasure. On the arousal dimension, most studies that used
physiological measures (e.g. galvanic skin response, elec-
troencephalograph) have generally shown that long-
wavelength colours (e.g. red and yellow) are more arousing
than short-wavelength colours (e.g. blue and green)
(Arsenault, Hebert & Dubois, 2012; Gerard, 1958; Kuller,
Mikellides & Janssens, 2009; Wilson, 1966). On the domi-
nance dimension, research shows that compared with blue,
red can enhance the dominance of animals and humans,
especially in competition (Healey, Uller & Olsson, 2007;
Hill & Barton, 2005; Pryke & Griffith, 2006). However, on
the pleasure dimension, the results are conflicting. Some
studies show that red can induce more positive emotion
than blue (Choungourian, 1968; Garth & Collado, 1921;
Gesche, 1927; Hevner, 1935; Pastoureau, 2001). Other
studies, however, find that blue can induce more positive
emotion than red (Camgoz, Yener & Guvenc, 2002; Gerend
& Tricia, 2009; Hurlbert & Ling, 2007; Manav, 2007;
Moller, Elliot & Maier, 2009; Sascha, 2009; Spielberger,
Gorsuch & Lushene, 1970; Valdez & Mehrabian, 1994;
Wogalter, Conzola & Smith-Jackson, 2002).
Correspondence: Lei Mo and Siyun Shu, Department of Psychol-
ogy, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631 China.
Email: molei@scnu.edu.cn, and shusybao@163.com
Received 22 July 2012; accepted 13 August 2013.
Colour theorists believe that colour influences minds and
behaviours mainly via learned associations. When people
frequently encounter situations where different colours are
accompanied by particular objects or experiences, they form
specific associations to those colours (Baldwin & Meunier,
1999). Learned association theory has been proven by the
studies in the colour behaviour field (Elliot, Maier, Moller,
Friedman & Meinhardt, 2007; Elliot, Maier, Binser,
Friedman & Pekrun, 2009; Mehta & Zhu, 2009). In a recent
report by Mehta and Zhu (2009), it is proven that red can
induce primarily avoidance motivation via learned associa-
tions with blood and warning, etc., and then enhanced per-
formance on a detail-oriented task; whereas blue can induce
primarily approach motivation via learned associations with
sky and ocean, etc., and then enhanced performance on a
creative task. This study, first of all, proves that it is via
learned associations that the colours induce specific motiva-
tions. Moreover, they give us an important implication that
learned associations should include both natural and social
associations (Moller et al., 2009). Natural associations refer
to the learned associations between colour and meanings
formed in the biological environment during a species’
evolution (e.g. the link between blue and sky). By contrast,
social associations refer to the learned associations between
colour and meanings formed in the socio-cultural environ-
ment during the individual’s development (e.g. the link
between red and victory).
As in the colour behaviour field, colour should also influ-
ence emotion through both natural and social associations
(Gerend & Tricia, 2009). Based on this theory, we propose
that the reason the influence of colour on arousal (or domi-
nance) is consistent in multiple research types among

© 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
Effects of colour on emotion
different species and cultures is because the associations
between colour and arousal (or dominance) are natural,
not social. During evolution, specific colour carries consist-
ent emotional arousal (or dominance) in the biological
environment for both human beings and animals. For
example, red is a signal for attention (higher arousal) and
power (higher dominance). Therefore, although research
objects vary from human to animals, culture to culture, and
research methods vary from behavioural to physiological,
the results of colour and arousal (or dominance) are con-
sistent (Moller et al., 2009). In this case we further suggest
that the reason the influence of colour on pleasure is still
controversial is because the associations between colour
and pleasure are not only natural but also social. Thus, we
further propose that the conflicting findings of previous
studies on pleasure dimension might result from the differ-
ent cultural backgrounds of the participants. In previous
studies, participants were American, Mexican, Philippine,
Turkish, Roman, Kuwaiti, American Indian, and German,
etc. The results show that the Mexican, Philippine, Roman,
Kuwaiti and American Indian participants preferred
red, and red could activate their positive emotions
(Choungourian, 1968; Garth & Collado, 1921; Gesche,
1927; Pastoureau, 2001), while the American, German, and
Turkish participants preferred blue, and blue could invoke
their positive emotions (Camgoz et al., 2002; Gerend &
Tricia, 2009; Hurlbert & Ling, 2007; Moller et al., 2009;
Sascha, 2009; Spielberger et al., 1970; Valdez &
Mehrabian, 1994; Wogalter et al., 2002). According to pre-
vious research, red is a respectful colour in the Mexican,
Philippine, and American Indian cultures, and it is com-
monly used in national flags, totems, and daily decorations
(Garth & Collado, 1921; Gesche, 1927). However, it does
not have such meanings in America, Germany, and Turkey.
Blue is generally preferred to red by American, British and
German adults (Camgoz et al., 2002; Gerend & Tricia,
2009; Hurlbert & Ling, 2007; Moller et al., 2009; Sascha,
2009; Spielberger et al., 1970; Valdez & Mehrabian, 1994;
Wogalter et al., 2002). However, blue is ranked among
the least preferred colours in Rome owing to the historical
reason that blue was adored by Rome’s archenemies, the
Celts (Pastoureau, 2001). Therefore, same colour can
carry different meanings in different socio-cultural
environments.
But what about Chinese participants? Owing to the
unique cultural environment, red and blue should have dif-
ferent effects on the emotions of Chinese people. Specifi-
cally, red, because of its special value in the red-esteem
Chinese culture, and its pivotal status in dangerous warning
in the natural environment, should induce both positive and
negative emotions in Chinese participants (Huang, Huang
& Li, 1991; Hurlbert & Ling, 2007; Li, 1991, 2007). By
contrast, blue does not have special meaning or status in
Chinese culture. As a result, it is more likely to induce
© 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
153
positive emotions in Chinese due to its positive associations
in the natural environment (Mehta & Zhu, 2009). So our
first hypothesis is that red could induce both positive and
negative emotions in Chinese, while blue could only induce
positive emotions in Chinese. Furthermore, according to
previous studies, because of the linguistic and abstract fea-
tures, verbal colour stimulus is a better reflection of social
culture than physical colour stimulus. It was more affected
by the socio-cultural environment and less, or even not at
all, by the biological environment (Harba & Grant, 1970;
Williams & Tucker, 1971). Thus, we further hypothesize
that the verbal colour stimulus ‘red’ could only induce
positive emotions in Chinese people. To test the above
hypotheses, two experiments were performed to investigate
the effects of red and blue on Chinese emotions. Experi-
ment 1 explored the different effects of red and blue on their
emotional pleasure; and Experiment 2 further explored the
influence of the verbal colour stimuli ‘red’ and ‘blue’ on
their emotional pleasure.
Experiment 1
Method
Experiment 1 aimed to investigate the effects of blue and
red on the emotional pleasure of Chinese people.1 It is
also worth noting that the experimental purposes of most
previous studies were so obvious that participants could
guess what was expected. However, according to learned
association theory, the activation of colour associations on
emotion always occurs automatically and unconsciously
(Bargh, 1990). In order to avoid the above problem, an
implicit task and a priming paradigm were used in this
study. During the experiment, the task was to ask the par-
ticipants to judge whether the word was true or not. But
the real purpose of the experiment was to investigate
whether positive (or negative) emotion words were
responded to faster than neutral ones in red (or blue)
colour priming conditions. According to the logic of the
priming paradigm, reactions are typically faster when the
target stimulus is preceded by a semantically or percep-
tually related priming stimulus (Angela, Steinhauer &
Frisch, 1999). Thus, faster reactions for target stimuli
(positive emotion words) in specific priming conditions
(e.g. red) indicate that this priming condition (e.g. red)
can induce the corresponding inner mental state (positive
emotion), which is consistent with the target stimuli (posi-
tive emotion words).
Participants
Thirty-one (16 female, 15 male, mean age: 22 ± 2.5 years)
students from South China Normal University participated
in the present study in exchange for ￥5. Participation was
154 Tingting Wang et al.

restricted to individuals who were native Chinese speakers, These pictures were all approximately close to 0 (z-score) in
had normal or corrected-to-normal vision without colour the dimensions of arousal, pleasure, and dominance.
blindness or weakness.
(2) Experimental phase. At the start of each trial, a fixa-
Design and materials tion cross appeared at the centre of the screen for 500 ms,
followed by a colour square as a priming stimulus pre-
A 3 (pleasure: positive, neutral, and negative) × 2 (colours:
sented for 105 ms. After the priming stimulus disappeared,
red and blue) within-subject design was used. The priming
an affective word as the target stimulus was shown on the
stimuli were either blue or red squares, which measured
screen. Participants were asked to judge whether the word
2 cm × 2 cm. The HSL (hue, saturation, and lightness)
was a real word or a pseudo word by pressing ‘F’ or ‘J’,
values were as follows: red = 0, 240, 120; blue = 160, 240,
respectively. The target word was presented on the screen
and 120; these were adopted from Mehta and Zhu
until the participants pressed one of the buttons or until
(2009).
3000 ms had elapsed.
The target stimuli were two types of words: experimental
and dummy. For the experimental words, the stimuli were
(3) Post-test phase. After the experiment, participants
180 affective words chosen from the Chinese affective
received a questionnaire to examine whether they had
words system (Wang, Zhou & Lou, 2008), including 60
figured out the aim of the experiment. For the post-test
positive words (e.g. ‘success’ and ‘smile’, z-score above
questionnaire, participants were asked the following
0.85, M = 6.93, SD = 0.22), 60 neutral words (e.g. ‘floor’
question: ‘What do you think we were trying to test?’ Only
and ‘door’, z-score above 0.40 and below −0.40, M = 5.13,
if the participants mentioned colour and emotion at the
SD = 0.33), and 60 negative words (e.g. ‘failure’ and ‘idiot’,
same time, they were judged to have figured out the purpose
z-score below −1.06, M = 3.02, SD = 0.34). The Chinese
of study (Elliot, Maier, Moller, Friedman & Meinhardt,
affective words system is a standard system, which is based
2007).
on the three emotional dimensions (arousal, dominance,
and valence) carried in Chinese words, and has a good
‘test-retest’ reliability (all the dimensions are over 0.79) Results and discussion
(Wang, Zhou, & Lou, 2008). One-way ANOVA showed
One participant was excluded because he had guessed the
that the difference in the three types of words was signifi-
purpose of the experiment. Mean RTs (for accurate
cant in pleasure but not significant in arousal, dominance,
responses) and accuracy were submitted to a 3 (pleasure:
concreteness, words frequency, and initial word frequency.
positive vs neutral vs negative) × 2 (colour: red vs blue)
To make sure the three types of words were comparable, we
repeated measures ANOVA, respectively. For RTs, the
conducted a pilot study under the non-priming condition.
main effect of pleasure was significant, F(2,58) = 18.49,
The results indicate that there were no significant differ-
MSE = 1892.09, p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.57. The main effect of
ences in either mean reaction times (RTs) or accuracy
colour was also significant, F(1,29) = 0.32, MSE =
among the three types of words (RTs: F(2,28) = 2.48,
1595.11, p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.05. More importantly, the inter-
MSE = 499.18, p > 0.05, ηp2 = 0.15; accuracy: F(2,28) =
action between colour and pleasure was significant,
2.51, MSE = 0.001, p > 0.05, ηp2 = 0.15). The dummy
F(2,58) = 3.61, MSE = 1445.73, p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.21.
words were 180 pseudo words (e.g., ‘冰现’). Both of the
Planned t-tests on simple effects suggested that, for the red
experimental words and dummy words were repeated
condition, positive words were responded to significantly
twice, so each of the subjects completed 720 trials. All
faster than negative (p < 0.05) and neutral words (p < 0.05),
stimuli were presented randomly.
while negative words were responded to significantly
faster than neutral words (p < 0.05); for the blue con-
Procedure
dition, positive words were responded to significantly
Computers with Intel Pentium V processors were used. The faster than negative words (p < 0.05) and neutral words
screen resolution was 1024 × 768, the screen lightness was (p < 0.05) (see Fig. 1). For accuracy, no significant effects
100, the screen contrast was 50, and the colour temperature were found.
was 6500 K. Each participant completed the experiment The results of Experiment 1 showed that in the red colour
independently in separate rooms, with a viewing distance of condition, both the reactions to positive and negative words
60 cm. They were asked to complete the three following were faster than to neutral words, while in the blue condi-
procedural phases in sequence: tion only the reactions to positive words were faster than
neutral words. The present findings support our first
(1) Adaptation phase. Eight affective pictures chosen from hypothesis that red can induce both positive and negative
the Chinese Affective Picture System (Bai, Ma, Huang & emotions in Chinese people, while blue can only induce
Luo, 2005) were each presented on the screen for 2 seconds. positive emotions in Chinese people.

© 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
Effects of colour on emotion
Figure 1 Results from Experiment 1: mean reaction
times a function of color (blue and red) and pleasure
(negative, neutral and positive). Standard errors are rep-
resented in the figure by the error bars attached to each
column. , negative; , neutral; , positive.
As mentioned above, we propose that the inducements
by red to negative emotions and blue to positive emotions
mainly originate from natural associations formed in the
biological environment, while the inducement by red to a
positive emotion mainly originates from cultural associa-
tions formed in the socio-cultural environment. To test
whether culture has influenced the effects of red on positive
emotions in Chinese, the verbal colour stimuli were
adopted as the priming stimuli in Experiment 2. Previous
studies have shown that because of the linguistic and
abstract features, verbal colour stimulus is a better reflec-
tion of social culture than physical colour stimulus (Harba
& Grant, 1970; Williams & Tucker, 1971). In this way, we
hypothesize that the verbal colour stimulus ‘red’ should
induce more positive emotions than neutral or negative
emotions, while the verbal colour stimulus ‘blue’ might not
have priming effects on emotions.
Experiment 2
Experiment 2 further explored the influence of the colour
concept on the emotional pleasure of Chinese people.
Method
Participants
Twenty-seven (17 female, 10 male, mean age: 20 ± 1.8
years) students from South China Normal University par-
ticipated in the present study in exchange for ￥5. Partici-
pation was restricted to individuals who were native
Chinese speakers, had normal or corrected-to-normal
vision without colour blindness or weakness.
© 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
155
Design and materials
A 3 (pleasure: positive, neutral, and negative) × 3 (priming
type: red concept, blue concept, and blank) within-subject
design was used. The material was identical to that of
Experiment 1, except that the priming stimulus was either
the written Chinese character ‘red’ or ‘blue’ painted in
black on a white blank screen (as the baseline condition).
Procedure
The procedure was completely identical to that of
Experiment 1.
Results and discussion
No participants’ data were deleted according to the report
of the post-test phase. Mean RTs (for accurate responses)
and accuracy were submitted to a 3 (pleasure: positive vs
neutral vs negative) × 3 (priming type: red concept vs blue
concept vs blank) repeated measures ANOVA. For RTs, the
main effect of pleasure was not significant, F(2,52) = 1.34,
MSE = 2989.08, p > 0.05, ηp2 = 0.05. The main effect of
colour was significant, F(2,52) = 9.24, MSE = 23450.64,
p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.26. More importantly, the interaction
between priming type and pleasure was significant,
F(4,104) = 4.39, MSE = 2357.62, p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.15.
Planned t-tests on simple effects suggest that, for the red
concept condition, positive words were responded to sig-
nificantly faster than negative (p < 0.05) and neutral words
(p < 0.05), and no significant difference between negative
words and neutral words was found (p > 0.05); for the blue
concept and blank condition, no significant effects were
found (see Fig. 2). For accuracy, no significant effects were
found.
The results of Experiment 2 show that when the word
‘red’ was adopted as the priming stimulus, only the reac-
tions to positive words were faster than to neutral ones,
which suggested that the red concept only induces positive
emotions in Chinese people. However, the word ‘blue’ had
no effects on affective words. The current result supports
our second hypothesis.
General discussion
The two experiments reported here investigated the effects
of red and blue on Chinese emotions. Experiment 1
showed that blue induced positive emotions, while red
induced both positive and negative emotions. Experiment
2 showed that the verbal colour stimulus ‘red’, however,
induced only positive emotion. By contrast, the verbal
colour stimulus ‘blue’ had no priming effects on emotion
words. The present findings have proved our two
hypotheses.
156
Figure 2 Results from Experiment 2: mean reaction
times as a function of priming type (blank and red) and
pleasure (negative, neutral and positive). Standard
errors are represented in the figure by the error bars
attached to each column. , negative; , neutral;
, positive.
Our first hypothesis is that the influence of colour on
emotions can be affected by different socio-cultural con-
texts. Our findings for Chinese have proved this opinion. In
the natural biological environment, blue represents the
colour of sea and sky. It is a safe rather than threatening
colour to animals and humans. The optical attributes of blue
can also allow people to feel cool and relaxed (Palmer,
Schloss & Sammartino, 2013). Because of the above char-
acteristics, in China blue is often used to decorate public
areas such as swimming pools, hospitals, and rest rooms. It
is also noteworthy that unlike in English-speaking coun-
tries, blue does not have special meanings in China. There-
fore, the verbal stimulus ‘blue’ induced neither positive nor
negative emotions in Experiment 2. Thus, we attribute its
inducement of positive emotion on Chinese participants to
its natural associations with positive emotions, which are
formed in the biological environment (Palmer & Schloss,
2010, 2011).
In the natural biological environment, red is the colour of
blood and fire. It is a signal conveying danger and avoidance.
According to previous studies, red can make animals and
humans alert, nervous, and anxious (Russell & Mehrabian,
1974; Wells, McDonald & Ringland, 2008). Although red
also represents positive objects (e.g. sunshine and flowers),
animals and humans tend to be more sensitive to the negative
information conveyed by it, because of the need to survive
and develop (Ito, Larsen, Smith & Cacioppo, 1998). This has
been proved in many animal experiments. For instance,
Russell & Mehrabian (1974) found that mice living in red
cages were more anxious and took more time to learn a maze
than those living in other cages; and Wells et al. (2008)
found that, in a colour preference test, gorillas and chimpan-
zees preferred red the least. Therefore, people’s negative
© 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
Tingting Wang et al.
experiences of red are derived from the natural associations
formed in the biological environment. On the contrary,
people’s positive experiences of red are more likely to
originate from associations formed in the social culture
(Palmer & Schloss, 2010, 2011).
This is especially obvious in Chinese culture. Because of
the red-esteem culture in Chinese history, red is associated
with many positive social events and objects (Huang,
Huang & Li, 1991; Hurlbert & Ling, 2007; Li, 1991, 2007).
First, in clothing, red conveys positive meanings. In
Chinese history, wearing red clothes symbolized success
and high social status. On a wedding day, the groom and
bride must wear red celebration clothes, a symbol of hap-
piness and love. Second, red is the main colour to decorate
traditional Chinese festivals, since red is considered to
convey good luck. Almost everything in a Chinese festival
is red (e.g. red lantern, red bag, red Spring Festival cou-
plets, red firecrackers). Third, in China, many other positive
expressions are related to red, such as beauty and success.
In addition, red can also represent revolution, hope, and
intrepidity in history and politics, such as the red flag, red
travelling, red stars, Red Army, etc. Thus, although the
physical stimulus red can trigger both positive and negative
emotions in Chinese, the verbal stimulus red can only
trigger positive emotions because of its close links with
Chinese culture (Huang, Huang & Li, 1991; Hurlbert &
Ling, 2007; Li, 1991). The current findings are also con-
sistent with previous research about the associations of
colour and meaning (Palmer & Schloss, 2010, 2011).
In conclusion, we proposed that for Chinese, the effects
of the colour blue towards positive emotion and red
towards negative emotion originate mainly from natural
associations, which are formed in the natural biological
environment, whereas the positive emotional response
to red originates mainly from cultural associations
formed in the cultural environment during an individual’s
development.
Our second hypothesis was that different types of colour
stimuli have different mechanisms to induce emotion.
Physical colour stimuli cause an emotional response by
activating both natural and social associations, whereas
verbal colour stimuli do so by activating only social asso-
ciations. The present findings have proved this hypothesis.
When we used physical colour as priming stimuli, red could
induce both the positive emotions formed in the cultural
environment and the negative ones formed in the natural
environment, while blue could induce the positive emotions
formed in the natural environment. However, when we
adopted the verbal colour words as the priming stimuli,
only red induced the positive emotions formed in the
Chinese cultural environment, while blue induced either
positive or negative emotions. The current findings are con-
sistent with previous research (Harba & Grant, 1970;
Williams & Tucker, 1971).
Effects of colour on emotion 157

Overall, for Chinese, blue induces positive emotions, End note

while red induces both positive and negative emotions.
The inducement of blue to positive emotion and red to
negative emotion mainly originates from associations
which are formed in the natural environment during bio-
logical evolution; whereas the inducement of red to posi-
tive emotion mainly originates from cultural associations
formed in the cultural environment during that individu-
al’s development.
However, it is also noteworthy that the present study has
only examined two colours: red and blue. Whether the
proposed mechanisms of the colour–emotion association is
applicable to every colour still needs further exploration.
1. We also conducted two pilot studies to test the effects of red
and blue on the emotional arousal and dominance of Chinese
people. Using the same method in Experiment 1, the results
show that red induced high arousal (t(30) = −4.64, p < 0.05,
Cohen’s d = −1.69) and high dominance (t(27) = −1.75,
p = 0.09 < 0.10, Cohen’s d = −0.67) emotion, while blue
induced low arousal (t(30) = −8.58, p < 0.05, Cohen’s
d = −3.13) and low dominance (t(27) = −2.24, p < 0.05,
Cohen’s d = −0.86) emotion. The results are consistent with
previous studies. This consistency also guaranteed the reliabil-
ity of our experiment method.

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