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

Journal: Psychological science

Volume: 31

Issue: 10

Year of Publication: 2021

Affiliated Institutions:  Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne. Institute of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University. Department of Psychology, King Saud University. Department of Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literatures, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. School of Computer and Communication Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. Department of Psychiatry, Tbilisi State Medical University. Escuela de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad Panamericana. Department of Educational Sciences, University of La Rioja. Department of Sociology and Philosophy, Smolensk State University. School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington. School of Psychology, University of Leeds. Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen. Division of Built Environment, Research Institutes of Sweden AB, Gothenburg, Sweden. Laboratory of Psychology, University Bourgogne Franche-Comté. Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki. Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria. School of Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Laboratory of Vision Physiology, I. Beritashvili Center of Experimental Biomedicine, T'bilisi, Georgia. Faculty of Psychology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Escuela Internacional de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Universidad de La Sabana. National Mental Health Centre, Ministry of Health, Baku, Azerbaijan. School of Humanities, Tallinn University. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki. Department of Economic Psychology, Kozminski University. Department of Psychology, University of Novi Sad. Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University.

Abstract summary 

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 = .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.

Authors & Co-authors:  Jonauskaite Domicele D Abu-Akel Ahmad A Dael Nele N Oberfeld Daniel D Abdel-Khalek Ahmed M AM Al-Rasheed Abdulrahman S AS Antonietti Jean-Philippe JP Bogushevskaya Victoria V Chamseddine Amer A Chkonia Eka E Corona Violeta V Fonseca-Pedrero Eduardo E Griber Yulia A YA Grimshaw Gina G Hasan Aya Ahmed AA Havelka Jelena J Hirnstein Marco M Karlsson Bodil S A BSA Laurent Eric E Lindeman Marjaana M Marquardt Lynn L Mefoh Philip P Papadatou-Pastou Marietta M Pérez-Albéniz Alicia A Pouyan Niloufar N Roinishvili Maya M Romanyuk Lyudmyla L Salgado Montejo Alejandro A Schrag Yann Y Sultanova Aygun A Uusküla Mari M Vainio Suvi S Wąsowicz Grażyna G Zdravković Sunčica S Zhang Meng M Mohr Christine C

Study Outcome 

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Statistics
Citations : 
Authors :  36
Identifiers
Doi : 10.1177/0956797620948810
SSN : 1467-9280
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Color
Other Terms
affect;color perception;cross-cultural;cultural relativity;open data;open materials;pattern analysis;universality
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Country of Study
Publication Country
United States