A study of colour emotion and colour preference. Part II: Colour emotions for two‐colour combinations

TLDR

The study examined 190 colour pairs across 11 emotion scales and developed a colour‑appearance‑based model that predicts pair emotions by averaging individual colour emotions and integrating single‑colour models, enabling emotion prediction from component colour attributes. Results revealed a gender effect on masculine–feminine emotions, no cultural differences, and three consistent factors—colour activity, weight, and heat—supporting a coherent framework, while an additivity relationship links single and combination emotions but does not extend to preference prediction. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.; DOI 10.1002/col.20024.

Abstract

Abstract Eleven colour‐emotion scales, warm–cool, heavy–light, modern–classical, clean–dirty, active–passive, hard–soft, harmonious–disharmonious, tense–relaxed, fresh–stale, masculine–feminine, and like–dislike, were investigated on 190 colour pairs with British and Chinese observers. Experimental results show that gender difference existed in masculine–feminine, whereas no significant cultural difference was found between British and Chinese observers. Three colour‐emotion factors were identified by the method of factor analysis and were labeled “colour activity,” “colour weight,” and “colour heat.” These factors were found similar to those extracted from the single colour emotions developed in Part I. This indicates a coherent framework of colour emotion factors for single colours and two‐colour combinations. An additivity relationship was found between single‐colour and colour‐combination emotions. This relationship predicts colour emotions for a colour pair by averaging the colour emotions of individual colours that generate the pair. However, it cannot be applied to colour preference prediction. By combining the additivity relationship with a single‐colour emotion model, such as those developed in Part I, a colour‐appearance‐based model was established for colour‐combination emotions. With this model one can predict colour emotions for a colour pair if colour‐appearance attributes of the component colours in that pair are known. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 29, 292–298, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20024