Is Purple lost in translation? Our latest cross-cultural article answers the question!

Image by Daniel Levis Pelusi

Our latest study, led by the Colour Experience research team and Dr Mari Uusküla, from the University of Tallinn, tried to understand where the affective heterogeneity found with the colour PURPLE comes from.

To do so, they analysed emotion associations with PURPLE across 30 populations and 16 languages (4,008 participants). Of note, these languages used the different cognates of purple, lilac or violet to denote the basic PURPLE category. We found small but systematic affective differences between these cognates. Additionally, affective biases also suggested high variability within each cognate. It seems the cognates partly account for inconsistencies in the meaning of PURPLE, without explaining their origins.

You can read the full article here to learn more about this fascinating colour!

See the full publication list of the Colour Experience team under Publications.