Complexity Scale and Aesthetic Judgments of Color Combinations

Abstract

The present research constructed a complexity scale of color combinations and examined whether the scale can account for aesthetic judgments. Twenty-eight Japanese undergraduate students rated 96 color combinations on scales of complexity, pleasantness, and interestingness. In two factors of composing color combinations, complexity was defined by both factors of the color relations (similarity or contrast between component colors) and of the number of colors. This confirms that the subjective complexity scale in color combinations is well explained by compositions of these two factors. Pleasantness showed a relationship with complexity suggestive of an inverted-U function in mean ratings; however, the relationship between interestingness and complexity was linear. These relations suggest that the complexity scale is closely related to the aesthetic judgments.