The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1996, 15713), 275-280 A Note on Adults’ Color—Emotion Associations MICHAEL HEMPHILL. Deparunent of Sociology University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia ABSTRACT. The color-emotion associations of undergraduate students were analyzed, Twenty men and 20 women were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaite in Thich they listed their favorite color, the major color they were wearing, their emotional Fesponses to colors, and the reasons for their choices Responses showed that bright col- itlicited mainly positive emotional associations and ane k colors elicited mainly nega- tive emotional associations. Women responded mor Positively than men to bright colors, and they also responded more negatively to dark color Comparisons are made between the color-emotion associations of children ant those of adults. The reasons for the color-emotion associations are discussed, COLORS HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT OM peoples’ lives. For example, color plays an important role in self-presentation and in impression formation People choose the color of their clothes, their ¢ HS, and even their sport shoes, depending on how they wish to present themselves (Trinkaus, 1991), Mest research related to color is concerned with color preferences. Person- ality traits, such as extroversion and neuroticism, have been shown to influence color preference (Choungourian, 1972), There ane also many studies that are con- cemed with color preference in relation to skin color and color preference based on cultural variation (Choungourian, 1968). Studies have also been devoted to the methodology for researching color preference (Z6ld, Toth, & Tolna, 1986), Researchers have examined how colors affect mood. Lawler and Lawler (1965, cited in Boyatzis & Varghese, 1994) found that children “colored with a yellow crayon after hearing a happy story and with a brown crayon after hearing However, few studies have focused on Color-emotion associations, Birren and Sharp (1974, 1978, cited in Boyatris & Varghese, 1994) showed that colors do appear to elicit certain emotional Tesponses. The color red has been associat. Address correspondence to Michael Hemphill, 16 Cameron Avenue, Artarmon, Sydney NSW 2064, Australia, 275 ‘Cépyriaght © 2001. All Rights Reserved.2H __ The Journal of Genetic Paveholoy ed with aggression and excitation, green has been associated wih withdrawal, and black has been associated with anxiety. Mote recently, Boyatzis and Varghese (1994) studied children’s color-cmie tion associations, They found that children displayed distinct color-emotion asso- ciations for nine different colors. One finding indicated that children tended 10 asociate positive emotions with light colors, stich as blue and yellow, and nega- tive emotions with dark colors, such as black and gray My purposes in this study were to examine adult sions and compare them with the conclusions of the study by Boyatzis and Varghese (1994) olor-emotion associa~ Method Participants ‘The participants were 40 undergraduate students from the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney. They wer divided equally into Wwe groups, one consisting of 20 women and the other of 20 men. The participants were mainly Caucasian and middle class. Materials and Procedure Colored cardboard rectangles (10 em by 12cm) were used to present the 10 different colors (white, pink, red, yellow, bluc. purple, green, brown, black, and gray). The participants completed the Gquestionnaise individually, at their own pace, Following instructions given on the [ront of the questionnaire. The partici- pants were asked to fist their favorite color the major color they were wearing and their gender. The participants were then required to place the card that most resembled their favorite color at the top of the deek of colored cards, They were then asked to respond to questions for each color: “What emotional response do you associ~ ine with this colour? How does this colour make you feel?” and “Why do you Feel this way?" The participants were required t0 list which particular color they were responding 0 as they filled in the questionnaie® rach deck of colored cards was shuffled for at least 1 min after each use, 17 order to ensure random presentation of colors. After they had completed the ques- tionnaire, the participants were thanked, and theit questions regarding the study were answered, Results Overall, 49% of the participants expressed positive respoNes to colors. 36% expressed negative responses, and 15% expressed no emotion. Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved.Hemphill 277 Fifty-three percent of the men and 55% of the women cited blue as their favorite color. Other favorite colors for the men were black, brown, green, and Forty-six percent of the men were wearing blue as their major color, 20% were ‘earing black, and 20% gray. Other colors they wore were white and brown, The major colors being worn by the women Were very similar. Forty-five Percent were wearing blue astheir major color, 10% black, and 25% green. The Semen showed more variety in their color choices than the men did; other col- ors they were wearing were purple, red, white, and gray. A high percentage of espondents were wearing their favorite color (40% of the men, and 45% of the women). Responses to individual colors were very similar for the men and women Brighter-colors elicited more positive Fesponses than darker colors, Bright colors included white, pink, red, yellow, blue Purple. and green. Dark colors included brown, black, and gray. Positive responses related to four categories: happy, excit- ed, relaxed, and positive. Negative responses also Telated to four categories: anx- ‘ous, boring, sad, and negative, There was also a category for those responses that indicated no emotional response Overall, 61% of the responses to bright colors Were positive, compared with only 21% for dark colors (see Table 1), Only 25% of the responses to bright col. Theo Negative, whereas 63% of the responses were negative for dark colors, The responses that indicated that the color did Not elicit any emotions at all were “proximately equal for bright and dark colors: 14% and 16%, respectively. The Nomen responded more positively to bright colors by a margin of 14%, and they also responded more negatively to dark colors by a margin of 8%, TABLE 1 Color-Emotion Associations for Br ight and Dark Colo Bright colors Dark colors Respondent Positive Negative No ‘motion Positive Negative No emotion Female n 102 42 9 10 39 10 % 67 oe 6 oF 66 17 Male n 39 25 28 13 28 7 % 53 22 25 27 58 Is Total a 161 67 37 23 67 17 % 61 25 14 21 63 16 Note. Ovecall, 49% of responses were Positive, 36% were negative, and 159% expressed no emotion, ‘Copyright © 2001.All Rights Reserved.etic Pyyehology Con 25% of the responses, the men indicated that they had no emotional response to bright colors. The women appeared to be more emotionally oriented. reporting no emotional response only 6% of the time. The men (279) also tended to fee! nvore positively toward dark colors than the women did (17%: see Figure 1). Blue elicited the highest number of positive responses, closely fotlowedl by green and red. Blue also elicited the lowest aunt tof negative and no-emnotion responses. The women Wel ‘ar more positive toward purple than the men were, Purple and hite elicited the highest total number of ne evtion responses for the men. and high no-emovion FesPOnses for the women. Surprisingly, gray rather than black evoked the highest number of negative responses. Gray also elicited the lowest number of positive responses. Negative responses for the women were even across white. pink, red. yellow. purple. and awn, Responses to brown did not indicate any real trend. Men and women were more negative toward pink than brows. Discussion previous studies have shown tHat children’s emotional associations tend (0 he positive For all colors (Boyatzis & Varghese, 1994). fn the present stuly, this vend held true for adults, though to a lesser extent Nearly 75% of the children’s responses in Boyatzis and Varghese’s study were positive. whereas only 49% oF the adults’ emotional associations m the present study were positive The results of this study also confirm the finding hy Boyatts and Varghese that males tend to respond more positively to dark colors than females do. Peethermore, in the present study, the traditional associ of red with sad ews and anger was not found. Boyalzis and Varghese (1994) did find that children vecoctated the color red with exeitement and happiness. and this finding was also confirmed in the present study: red was most often associated with excitement. “Traditionally, blue has been associated with males and pink with females. “The findings of the present study do not appear (0 support this suggestion. Sur- prisingly. blue was the nost favored “color and the most frequently worn color for both the women and the men, No woman cited pink as her favorite color. This finding may be an indication of the reduction of the so-called gender gap and i probably largely attributable to the prevalence of blue denim jeans. Because the sample under study consisted of university undergraduates. many of thent were probably wearing jeans on the day they completed the survey. The reason that blue elicited the highest number oF Pe itive responses and was arost often seen as the favorite color seems (0 Pe because many participants asso- vege blue with the oceart or the sky: Both were seen be limitless, calma, oF serene Green also prompted a large umber of positive responses. along with red and yellow. Reasons given for positive response to green consistently showed that green was associated with the environment: forests, wees. and nature Yellow was seen to be a positive color because it was seen to be bright, like the Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved.279 Hemphitl sna yori WAWdWd Wana mora, uaa aydaind WdW4 WIWAWd WAWAWA W. W vonowe ou - d Yonowe ou | Wennebou gy — denneBou py i W @anso: i J eanisod 5 BB suid Vd WAWIWd WAWAWA Wawa Wy aug AWW sosuodsoy Jo sioquinyy ‘Copyright © 2001: All Rights Reserved.The Journal of Genetic Paveholugs sun, Red was seen to be positive because iC was a “StonE positive colour” and acwarm colour” On the other hand, gray was seen to be most negative Berane it tended to be aysociated with rainy days and elicited sad or bored ‘emotional responses. This finding raises an interesting question for future research. Is there a higher ( dency for depression to ocour on rainy, overcast days? Moreover, are the moods of people affected by the environment in which they live? For example, dee depression tend to occur more in countries whete there is a lot of rain? Boyatzis and Varghese (1994) reported emotional responses for every color trom every child. These responses were then simply categorized into six em0- tions: happy. strong, excited, sad, angry, and boring. However, in the present siudy, a more complex categorization scheme was needed. Emotional responses had to be recategorized, and a no-emotion response CFE" had to be included There was also a requirement to include two gen sral response categories in an attempt to capture the large variety of emotional responses: ‘These categories were simply labeled positive and negative. Overall, the findings of this study tend to confirm many of the conclusions provided by Boyatzis and Varghese (1994), including the suggestion (hat pvfor-emotion associations become more complex with increasing age. Future research should be directed toward obtaining larser sample sizes and a more dif- ferentiated sample. Such research would allow for random error and provide con crete evidence in the area of color-emotion associations. REFERENC! Boyatvis, C. J., & Varghese, R. (1994), Children’s emotional associations with colors. The oun of Genetic Psxchlogs, 15S, TI-8S. Choungourian, A. (1968). Color preferences: and cultural variation. Percept) and Mator ‘Skills, 26, 1203-1206. Choungourian, A. (1972). Extraversion, neurones and color preferences, Pervepawal and Motor Skills, 34, 724-724 Frinkaus, J. (1991). Color preference in sport shoes ‘An informal look. Perceptral and Motor Skills, 73. 613-614. oN. BL Téith,'., & Tolna, J. (1986). Cofour preferen Motor Skills, 62. 739-752 A new approach, Perceprral and Received July 10. 1995 Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved.