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Children's Emotional Associations with Colors
Abstract
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.
... If explored in more detail, color-emotion mappings are highly age dependent (Boyatzis and Varghese, 1994;Ou et al., 2011;Terwogt and Hoeksma, 1995): not only adult and children color-emotion mappings are very different, children's emotional associations with colors are also crucially different at different ages. Although children seem to generally assign positive reactions to bright colors and negative to dark colors, emotional relations to particular colors are relatively distinct and there are systematic gender differences in emotional reactions to different colors (Boyatzis and Varghese, 1994). ...
... If explored in more detail, color-emotion mappings are highly age dependent (Boyatzis and Varghese, 1994;Ou et al., 2011;Terwogt and Hoeksma, 1995): not only adult and children color-emotion mappings are very different, children's emotional associations with colors are also crucially different at different ages. Although children seem to generally assign positive reactions to bright colors and negative to dark colors, emotional relations to particular colors are relatively distinct and there are systematic gender differences in emotional reactions to different colors (Boyatzis and Varghese, 1994). ...
... The BW versions of the calmness-inducing film clips were also found to evoke higher levels of boredom and confusion. Considering the color palette of the calmness category, which predominantly contains nature scenes in daylight, this result might be expected that hues such as blue or green or bright colors are often associated with positive emotions (Boyatzis & Varghese, 1994;Kaya & Epps, 2004). Landscape contents were evaluated as more beautiful and marginally more pleasing when they were presented in their original colors compared to grayscale presentation (Polzella et al., 2005). ...
... Thus, more research needs to be done in order to understand which auditory element in what kind of contextual content is one of the critical stimulators of target emotions. Similarly, we only focused on comparing color versus BW versions, but future research may expand the current study by examining differences between or within colors (e.g., Boyatzis & Varghese, 1994;Kaya & Epps, 2004;Kuzinas et al., 2016). ...
Previous research has shown that the use of short flm clips is one of the most successful and widely-used methods of emotion
elicitation. Nevertheless, there is a high degree of audiovisual variation across flm clips, resulting in a trade-of in terms of
controllability. To address this complexity, the present study aimed to investigate the potential efects of sound and color on
flm clips’ emotion-elicitation levels. For this purpose, four diferent flm clips were selected for each of the eight emotion
categories: amusement, tenderness, calmness, anger, sadness, disgust, fear, and neutrality. All flm clips were manipulated
in terms of features of sound (sound versus silent)×color (color versus BW). In total, 128 flm clips were tested online on
various parameters: intensity of target emotion, valence, arousal, discreteness, and non-target emotions. The results revealed
that sound was a mild contributing factor in increasing the degree of target emotions and evoking less boredom and more
interest. However, color efects were less pronounced in emotion-elicitation using flm clips. Furthermore, the study provided
preliminary evidence that for most of the flm clips, there was no signifcant diference in emotional reactivity in response to
subtitled versus dubbed flm clips. In conclusion, the current study showed that flm clips (with a few exceptions) can evoke
moderate to high levels of emotions independent of their bottom-up features, such as sound or color.
... In comparison, toys made from bamboo and wood lack vibrant colors and are usually limited to natural hues. This can limit the stimulation of children's imagination and hinder their overall cognitive and social emotional development [8]. Furthermore, the absence of different colors can also make these toys less appealing to children and potentially discourage them from playing with them. ...
... Colorful toys can help babies develop their eyesight and maintain their attention [7]. Research study [8] have found that color carries critical importance in the development of children's cognitive skills. Bright and colorful playrooms can affect a child's development by shifting bad moods and providing them with vocabulary to describe the world around them. ...
... Questionnaires from the floricultural industry have shown that color is the top consideration for consumers when purchasing flowers (Behe et al., 1999;Kelley et al., 2001). Surveys of people's preferences for street-grown flowers have found that bright colors (red, pink) can evoke positive emotions (Boyatzis and Varghese, 1994). The most intuitive part of planning and installing a park is the landscape presented by plants and the corollary of selecting species that meet human aesthetic preferences. ...
... Normal chromats are capable of visualizing up to 2.3 million discernible colors (Linhares et al., 2008), which lead to an almost endless constellation of color combinations (Hard & Sivik, 2001). Numerous studies have demonstrated the direct association between color perception and emotion (Adams & Osgood, 1973;Boyatzis & Varghese, 1994;Crozier, 1999;Gilbert et al., 2016;Hemphill, 1996;Jacobs & Suess, 1975;Kaya & Epps, 2004;Valdez & Mehrabian, 1994;Wilms & Oberfeld, 2018). For instance, Kaya and Epps (2004) revealed that principal hues (e.g., red, yellow) evoked higher positive emotions than intermediate hues (e.g., yellow-red, blue-green) and achromatic colors (e.g., white, gray). ...
This study investigated the effects of color presence and saturation on the affective judgment of real-life images, as functions of the image’s affective valence. In the first two experiments, participants observed and rated original color photos and their grayscale versions, presented in an interleaved order across two separate experimental sessions. Color photos were rated as more pleasant than grayscale photos when image valence was positive, and more unpleasant when image valence was negative. The third experiment consisted of the same original images and their versions with saturation reduced by 50%. Original photos were rated as more pleasant than saturation-reduced photos when image valence was positive, yet less unpleasant when image valence was negative, implying potentially separable mechanisms for processing color presence and saturation. Significant interactions were found between color or saturation mode and valence on affective judgment in all three experiments. The effects persisted after controlling for colorfulness and luminance between the color and grayscale (or de-saturated) conditions.
... One such mechanism may be emotional or hedonic associations, as previous research has shown that bitter taste is generally disliked or associated with danger (Higgins and Hayes, 2019;Spence, 2023). Additionally, black is the least favorite color of children and elicits negative emotions (Boyatzis and Varghese, 1994;Koleoso et al., 2014). Therefore, it is plausible that the association between bitter taste and black color in children is based on shared negative values (Salgado-Montejo et al., 2015;Velasco et al., 2015;Turoman et al., 2018;Spence, 2023). ...
Introduction:
Adults possess a natural inclination to associate sensory cues derived from distinct modalities, such as the pairing of sweet with pink. However, studies exploring crossmodal correspondences in children, particularly in the sensory pairing of visual features and tastes, are scant, leaving unanswered questions regarding the developmental trajectory of crossmodal correspondences. The present study investigates whether Japanese preschool children demonstrate specific biases in shape-color, shape-taste, and color-taste associations.
Methods:
In a series of in-person experiments, 92 children between 3 to 6 years of age completed matching tasks utilizing paper stimuli.
Results:
Children exhibit crossmodal correspondences in shape-color (circle-red and asymmetrical star-yellow), shape-taste (triangle-salty and circle-sweet), and color-taste (yellow-sour, black-bitter, and pink-sweet) associations. Moreover, children's choices are not influenced by their individual preferences.
Discussion:
The crossmodal correspondences observed in this study have been observed in previous research on adults from the same (Japanese) culture, although adults showed more crossmodal correspondences than the children in this study (e.g., pink-circle, triangle-sour, and green-bitter). Thus, while some crossmodal correspondences emerge during childhood, others may require additional time to develop, thereby highlighting the importance of understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying crossmodal correspondences from an ontogenic perspective.
... Children tend to like bright colours [18,20,21], and this seems to apply to medicines as well [15,52]. However, it is not clear whether some colours can positively or negatively affect a medicine's acceptability. ...
The colour of a product plays an important role in consumer experiences, and in the context of pharmaceutical products, this could potentially affect a patient’s expectations, behaviours, and adherence. Several studies have been conducted on adults, but little is known about children’s opinions on colours of medicines and to what extent medicines’ colour affects their acceptability. To address this gap, a systematic search in PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE, and Web of Science was conducted. Two authors independently screened the titles, abstracts, and references of all articles and selected studies conducted on children (0–18 years old), assessing children’s preferences or opinions about colour of oral dosage forms as either a primary or secondary objective or as an anecdotal record. A total of 989 publications were identified and, after screening, 18 publications were included in the review. Red and pink were the most liked colours and there appeared to be a relationship between the colour of a medicine and expected taste/flavour. The review also highlighted a scarcity of information, usually collected as an anecdotal record. Several gaps in the current knowledge were underlined, emphasizing the need of patient-centred studies to understand if the use of certain colours can improve or worsen the acceptability of a paediatric medicine. This will help inform pharmaceutical manufacturers and regulators on the role and need of colours in children’s medicines beyond quality purposes.
... Avatars are graphical representations of certain characters, whose faces and expressions evoke learners' emotions (Loderer et al., 2020). Generally, bright colours, round shapes, and avatars are connected with positive achievement emotions (Arroyo et al., 2013;Boyatzis & Varghese, 1994;Kao & Harrell, 2015a, b;Mayer & Estrella, 2014;Plass et al., 2014;Um et al., 2012). Particularly, avatars are better at inducing learners' positive achievement emotions compared to bright colours, which likely occurs because the control over avatars provides players a sense of power, and increased control-related appraisals further arouses positive achievement emotions. ...
Digital educational games can be an enjoyable way to improve students’ mathematics achievement. However, players may experience other emotions besides enjoyment when learning about mathematics, such as anxiety and boredom. These emotions are also important as they affect learning outcomes via multiple pathways. Loderer et al. propose five foundational emotional design principles for use in digital game-based learning. However, empirical evidence to support these principles is lacking. This paper conducted a meta-analysis on the effects of emotional design principles. The results showed that among the studies reviewed (n = 17), most of games applied multiple principles. In general, emotional design principles had a medium effect size on both achievement emotions (g = .50) and learning outcomes (g = .66). Principles that influence control and value appraisals had stronger effects (g = .60/.63 respectively) compared to those that did not contribute to control and value appraisals. These principles should be adopted for a better emotional experience and learning outcome.KeywordsAchievement emotionsMathematical gamesDigital gamesGame design
In recent years, immersive Virtual Reality (VR) has gained popularity among young users as a new technology for entertainment gaming. While VR remains majorly used for entertainment purposes, 3D desktop games are already used in schools. This study takes a closer look at the suitability for VR games to be used in a formal educational environment, and its potential to enrich existing game based learning approaches. Based on learning needs of in particular easily distracted and inattentive children, an immersive VR maths game was created and tested on 15 children aged 10–13. This study found VR to be suitable for usage in a school setting, as well as seeming to be an enjoyable addition to learning for this age group. Further research is needed to investigate its concrete potential.KeywordsApplied GamesVirtual RealityEducationGame RequirementsInclusive Games
The physical environment of 120 girls and boys was compared in order to study the emergence of gender differences in infancy. Three age groups were investigated, 5, 13, and 25 months, with 40 children in each group. The quantity and types of toys, the colors and types of clothing, and the colors and motifs of the children's room were noted on a checklist by an observer who visited their homes. The results showed that boys were provided with more sports equipment, tools, and large and small vehicles. Girls had more dolls, fictional characters, child's furniture, and other toys for manipulation. They wore pink and multicolored clothes more often, had more pink pacifiers and jewelry. Boys wore more blue, red and white clothing. They had more blue pacifiers. Yellow bedding was more frequently observed in the girls' rooms, while blue bedding and curtains were more prevalent in the boys' rooms. Women were the predominant providers of toys for children. It thus seems that, nowadays, very early in their development, girls and boys already experience environments which are dissimilar. We may hypothesize that these differential environments will have an impact on the development of specific abilities and preferential activities in children.
Recognizing associations between color and mood in adults, including cross-cultural similarities, this study sought to determine these associations in young children. 18 preschool boys and girls drew faces on 14 colored human figures, each of a different color and sex combination. Mouth drawings were rated as happy, sad, or indifferent. Chi squared analyses showed no support for an effect of color or sex. A strong bias towards a happy mood was noted, irrespective of color.
4 studies addressed children's sex-related stereotyping of colors. Study 1 examined preschoolers' awareness of color stereotypes. Children were presented with 6 toy animals, identical except for color, and were asked to identify the sex of each animal and to select a favorite. Both sex identifications and toy preferences were highly consistent with adult color stereotypes. Study 2 demonstrated that clothing color influences preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade children's impressions of other children whose sex is known. Studies 3 and 4 indicated that the effects of stereotyping based on color are modest in comparison to the effects of stereotyping based directly on sex. In addition, color stereotyping did not show the regular age-related increase that is characteristic of sex-role stereotyping.