Influence of Classroom Colour Environment on College Students’ Emotions during Campus Lockdown in the COVID-19 Post-Pandemic Era—A Case Study in Harbin, China

Abstract

Campus lockdown during COVID-19 and the post-pandemic era has had a huge negative effect on college students. As a vital part of interior teaching spaces, colour deeply influences college students’ mental health and can be used for healing. Nevertheless, research on this topic has been limited. Based on colour psychology and colour therapy, this paper discusses the relationship between interior teaching space colours (hue and brightness) and emotions among college students. The HAD scale and questionnaire survey method were used. It was concluded that: (1) Anxiety and depression were prominent among the college student population during the quarantine of the university due to the epidemic. (2) Warm colours have an advantage over both cold and neutral colours in creating pleasure, relaxation, and mental attention, with the second in line being the cold and the last being the neutral. Warm colours make it pleasant for individuals while cold colours boost attention. (3) When subjects have higher values of anxiety and depression, they are less satisfied with the colour of the teaching space. (4) In most cases, there is no significant difference in the colour preference of teaching spaces across the gender, grade, and major groups, with females having a higher preference for warm high-brightness classrooms than males. These findings provide crucial ideas for future interior teaching space design and enrich the theories in colour psychology.