Universal Patterns in Color-Emotion Associations Are Further Shaped by Linguistic and Geographic Proximity-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

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

Published:2020-09-08 Issue:10 Volume:31 Page:1245-1260
ISSN:0956-7976
Container-title:Psychological Science
language:en
Short-container-title:Psychol Sci

Author:

Jonauskaite Domicele¹^ORCID,Abu-Akel Ahmad¹^ORCID,Dael Nele¹²,Oberfeld Daniel³^ORCID,Abdel-Khalek Ahmed M.⁴,Al-Rasheed Abdulrahman S.⁵,Antonietti Jean-Philippe¹,Bogushevskaya Victoria⁶^ORCID,Chamseddine Amer⁷,Chkonia Eka⁸,Corona Violeta⁹¹⁰,Fonseca-Pedrero Eduardo¹¹,Griber Yulia A.¹²,Grimshaw Gina¹³,Hasan Aya Ahmed⁴,Havelka Jelena¹⁴,Hirnstein Marco¹⁵,Karlsson Bodil S. A.¹⁶,Laurent Eric¹⁷¹⁸,Lindeman Marjaana¹⁹,Marquardt Lynn¹⁵,Mefoh Philip²⁰,Papadatou-Pastou Marietta²¹²²,Pérez-Albéniz Alicia¹¹,Pouyan Niloufar¹,Roinishvili Maya²³,Romanyuk Lyudmyla²⁴²⁵²⁶,Salgado Montejo Alejandro²⁷²⁸²⁹,Schrag Yann¹,Sultanova Aygun³⁰,Uusküla Mari³¹,Vainio Suvi³²,Wąsowicz Grażyna³³,Zdravković Sunčica³⁴³⁵,Zhang Meng³⁶,Mohr Christine¹

Affiliation:

1. Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne

2. Department of Organizational Behavior, University of Lausanne

3. Institute of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

4. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University

5. Department of Psychology, King Saud University

6. Department of Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literatures, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

7. School of Computer and Communication Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne

8. Department of Psychiatry, Tbilisi State Medical University

9. Escuela de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad Panamericana

10. Business Management Department, Universitat Politècnica de València

11. Department of Educational Sciences, University of La Rioja

12. Department of Sociology and Philosophy, Smolensk State University

13. School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington

14. School of Psychology, University of Leeds

15. Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen

16. Division of Built Environment, Research Institutes of Sweden AB, Gothenburg, Sweden

17. Laboratory of Psychology, University Bourgogne Franche–Comté

18. Maison des Sciences de l’Homme et de l’Environnement, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and University of Franche-Comté

19. Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki

20. Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria

21. School of Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

22. Biomedical Research Foundation (BRFaa), Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece

23. Laboratory of Vision Physiology, I. Beritashvili Center of Experimental Biomedicine, T’bilisi, Georgia

24. Faculty of Psychology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

25. Department of Psychology, V. I. Vernadsky Taurida National University

26. Department of Psychology, Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts

27. Escuela Internacional de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Universidad de La Sabana

28. Center for Multisensory Marketing, BI Norwegian Business School

29. Neurosketch, Bogotá, Colombia

30. National Mental Health Centre, Ministry of Health, Baku, Azerbaijan

31. School of Humanities, Tallinn University

32. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki

33. Department of Economic Psychology, Kozminski University

34. Department of Psychology, University of Novi Sad

35. Laboratory for Experimental Psychology, University of Belgrade

36. Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University

Abstract

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 r = .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.

Funder

Bergens Forskningsstiftelse

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

Russian Foundation for Basic Research

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

General Psychology

Link

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0956797620948810

Reference40 articles.

1. A Cross-Cultural Study of the Affective Meanings of Color