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Children's Emotional Associations with Colors

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In this study children's emotional associations with colors were investigated. Sixty children (30 girls, 30 boys), equally divided into groups of 5-year-olds and 6 1/2-year-olds, were asked their favorite color and were then shown nine different colors, one at a time and in a random order. For each color, children were asked, "How does (the color) make you feel?" All children were able to verbally express an emotional response to each color, and 69% of children's emotional responses were positive (e.g., happiness, excitement). Responses also demonstrated distinct color-emotion associations. Children had positive reactions to bright colors (e.g., pink, blue, red) and negative emotions for dark colors (e.g., brown, black, gray). Children's emotional reactions to bright colors became increasingly positive with age, and girls in particular showed a preference for brighter colors and a dislike for darker colors. Boys were more likely than girls were to have positive emotional associations with dark colors. Potential sources for children's color-emotion concepts, such as gender-related and idiosyncratic experiences, are discussed.
... This study employs insights from the Color and Emotional Expression Theory to analyze the emotional states of children from internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and those residing in stable homes in conflict-affected areas of Myanmar. Research by Boyatzis and Varghese (1994) has shown that children's choice of colors in their drawings can reflect their inner emotional states, with warm colors (such as red, orange, and yellow) often associated with positive emotions like happiness and excitement, and cool colors (such as blue, green, and purple) typically linked to negative emotions like sadness and fear. By examining the use of colors in children's drawings, this framework facilitates an assessment of their emotional wellbeing and the impact of their living conditions and traumatic experiences on their emotional expressions. ...
... The investigation in the first phrase reveals that children from both permanent homes and displaced homes tended to use black, brown, blue and gray colors, which are frequently associated with negative emotions (Boyatzis & Varghese, 1994). This suggests that the artwork of these students might express sadness, fear, or anxiety. ...
... This suggests that the artwork of these students might express sadness, fear, or anxiety. Additionally, the limited use of warm colors, which are typically associated with positive emotions (Boyatzis & Varghese, 1994), suggests that their drawings lack a sense of happiness or joy. Notably, regardless of their residency status, approximately half of the students (50% of both IDP and permanent resident students) displayed negative emotions in the images or themes of drawings. ...
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This research investigates how students from two different backgrounds in a conflict-affected area—one group being internally displaced (IDP) and the other residing in permanent homes—express their emotions through art. The study aims to understand the emotional experiences of these students and explore the potential therapeutic benefits of art for children in conflict-affected areas. Two experiments were conducted: in the first, students drew freely without specific instructions; in the second, they were asked to express their emotions through their drawings and provide reasons for their choices. In the first experiment, students mostly used dark and dull colors, suggesting feelings of sadness and anxiety. In the second experiment, IDP students used vibrant colors reflecting resilience, while town students used monochromatic shades likely due to their recent experiences with conflict. Living conditions and recent traumatic events significantly influence the emotional expressions in students' artwork. Art-based interventions can be tailored to address their unique emotional needs.
... Thus, colors play a vital role in a child's life. 5,6 For children, color preference is expressed through their belongings and surroundings, such as toys, clothing, lunch boxes, sportswear, and home accessories. 7 Research has demonstrated the relationship between the performance and behavior of a child and their color preferences. ...
... 7 Research has demonstrated the relationship between the performance and behavior of a child and their color preferences. 6,8 Colors have been classified as warm or cool, based on their correlation with temperature. 9 Colors have 3 fundamental features, namely saturation, value and hue. ...
... This finding aligns with the results of the study conducted by Boyatzis and Varghese, which observed a correlation between darker colors and negative emotions as well as lighter colors and positive emotions. 6 The hypothalamus controls the nerve centers, respiration and heart rate. It induces a physical reaction in children when they are exposed to light stimuli and different colors. ...
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Background: One of the major causes of dental anxiety in children is their first impression of the dental environment. Even minor details, such as the choice of color in a dental setting and the color of dental equipment, can positively influence a child's behavior. Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between the emotions in children and color combinations in a pediatric setting. Material and methods: The study involved 200 children (99 boys and 101 girls) aged between 6 and 12 years who visited the dental clinics at the College of Dentistry, Jazan University, for the first time between November 2017 and January 2018. The participants were divided into 2 groups based on age. The younger children group included participants aged from 6 to 9 years, while the older children group included participants aged from 10 to 12 years. Anxiety levels were recorded using the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale. Colored pencils and images of emoticons were provided to all children, who were instructed to color the negative and positive emoticons with their preferred colors. Results: The analysis of anxiety levels among children in both groups revealed statistically significant differences across sexes in the younger age group, with girls being more anxious than boys (p = 0.003). Additionally, a statistically significant difference was observed in the choice of colors by children of both sexes in 2 age groups (p = 0.001). Most children were inclined towards bright colors and used them to express their emotions. Conclusions: The incorporation of colors in a dental setting could invoke positive emotions in children. Hence, the use of colors in the workplace has the potential to ease anxiety.
... Existing studies have explored the effects of color on students' emotions mainly from three dimensions of color properties: color tone (i.e., wavelength), brightness (i.e., lightness), and saturation or chroma (i.e., purity or vividness) [29]. Children have different emotional associations with different colors [30]. Gold, yellow, rose, red, and green are the top five ranked emotionally pleasant colors for children [31]. ...
... Research has also shown that color tone has a lesser effect on emotion, while saturation and brightness have a greater effect on emotion [29]. For example, in investigations exploring how color affects children's emotions, lighter colors were associated with positive emotions (e.g., happiness, and excitement), while darker colors were associated with negative emotions (e.g., sadness, and anger) [30]. Children tend to associate high-brightness colors, such as blue and yellow, with positive emotions and low-saturation colors, such as black and gray, with negative emotions [24]. ...
... Specifically, cool-colored classrooms not only have the potential to evoke positive emotions in students but may also trigger some negative emotions. This finding is consistent with the views of psychiatrist Kurt Goldstein and the conclusions of other related studies [8,23,30], suggesting that the impact may vary depending on the specific context and individual differences among students. For example, Lipson-Smith et al. also found that participants exhibited different emotional perceptions of the same color in different types of rooms (cube room, lounge room, and waiting room) [54]. ...
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Although it has been shown that color can influence mental health and behavior, few studies have discussed the effects of cool and warm colors in classrooms on the perceived emotions of elementary school students. In this study, we investigated the emotional changes of elementary school students in Yinchuan City, Northwest China in classrooms with cool and warm color tones. By using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C), the emotions of 123 third- to sixth-grade students in classrooms with cool and warm color tones were measured. We found the following conclusions: (1) Overall, the emotional responses of the subjects in both the cool- and warm-colored classrooms showed a tendency for positive emotions to be higher than negative emotions. (2) There was no significant difference between the effects of cool and warm colors on the overall emotion of elementary school students, but there were significant differences in specific emotions; Compared to warm colors, cool colors had a more significant effect on increasing feelings of calm (β = −0.365, p = 0.041). Compared to cool colors, warm colors were more likely to cause participants to feel mad (β = 0.186, p = 0.099). (3) The effects of cool and warm colors on students’ emotions differed significantly by gender and grade level. Cool and warm color tones had a significantly greater positive impact on females. In contrast, cool and warm colors had a more pronounced effect on males’ negative emotions. In addition, we found that grade level was significantly negatively correlated with overall emotion (β = −0.696, p < 0.001), with lower grades perceiving emotion more positively than higher grades. These findings provide important insights into the spatial design of elementary school classrooms and provide valuable comparative data for studies in different regional and cultural contexts, further enriching the empirical support of color psychology theory.
... Therefore, children understand color metaphors in images to apply them in real-life situations. [2] state that 69% of children select colors with high hue, saturation, and brightness. For example, colors with high hue, saturation, and brightness, such as red and pink, are more likely to stimulate the brain and excite children. ...
... Thus, colors with high hue, saturation, and brightness in picture book illustrations help to stimulate children's interest in reading and thus their understanding of color metaphors, as well as the use of color perceptions in place of concrete events. [2] also state that 69% of children do not select colors with soft hue, saturation, and brightness. For example, grey and black can easily cause color fatigue in children. ...
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Children's picture books have become the first choice for reading books because young children cannot understand anything too complicated. A picture book is a book that closely interweaves images, illustrations, colors, and text to tell a story about a specific theme. This paper will demonstrate the positive effects of bright colors used in picture book illustrations on young children's color perception and language organization skills, and demonstrate that these positive effects lead to differences in color preferences and effects between 7–9-year-old boys and girls when viewing colors in picture book illustrations.
... Various studies suggest that colors strongly affect emotions, with blue, blue-green, green, red-purple, purple, and purpleblue being the most pleasant and green-yellow, blue-green, and green being the most arousing colors [4]. Studies consistently find that bright colors elicit positive emotions, while dark colors evoke negative feelings [5], [6], [7]. Red is typically linked to negative emotions and emotionally charged words, whereas yellow and white are connected with positive emotions and related words, respectively [8]. ...
... Studies show that color-emotion associations reveal both universal patterns and cultural variations. Studies have found that bright colors generally elicit positive emotions, while dark colors evoke negative responses [7], [5], [6]. The associations between colors and emotions are influenced by multiple factors, including hue, lightness, and saturation [9]. ...
... Third, all participants in this experiment were Japanese, and the facial stimuli used were also Japanese models. Color preferences for emotion and facial color are known to vary across cultures, and the association between emotion and color is known to be developmentally variable (Boyatzis and Varghese, 1994;Han et al., 2018;Jonauskaite et al., 2020). Hence, it is appropriate to interpret the findings of this study as being based on phenomena observed under specific conditions, and their validity is limited within certain populations. ...
Article
The relationships between facial expression and color affect human cognition functions such as perception and memory. However, whether these relationships influence selective attention and brain activity contributed to selective attention remains unclear. For example, reddish angry faces increase emotion intensity, but it is unclear whether brain activity and selective attention are similarly enhanced. To investigate these questions, we examined whether event-related potentials for faces vary depending on facial expression and color by recording electroencephalography (EEG) data. We conducted an oddball task using stimuli that combined facial expressions (angry, neutral) and facial colors (original, red, green). The participants counted the number of times a rarely appearing target face stimulus appeared among the standard face stimuli. The results indicated that the difference in P3 amplitudes for the target and standard faces depended on the combinations of facial expressions and facial colors; the P3 for red angry faces were greater than those for red neutral faces. Additionally, facial expression or facial color had no significant main effect or interaction effect on P1 amplitudes for the target, and facial expression had significant main effects only on the N170 amplitude. These findings suggest that the interaction between facial expression and color modulates the P3 associated with selective attention. Moreover, the response enhancement resulting from this interaction appears to occur at a cognitive processing stage that follows the processing stage associated with facial color or expression alone. Our results support the idea that red color increases the human response to anger from an EEG perspective.
... We use visual and auditory modalities for supplementary assistance in plot association. For visual assistance, the color hue and saturation alter according to the color palettes set for each phase also seen from Figure 2. Due to the association of bright colors with positive mood and dark colors with negative [2], we choose specific color palettes as demonstrated by learning design principles from [27]. Hence, we parallel 'No Smell Impairment' with a warm, pink palette, the 'Smell Impairment' with a dark, gray palette, and the 'Recovered Smell' with a vivid, warm color palette. ...
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