How mysterious Purple really is? Our latest article answer the question!

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Our latest study, led by the Colour Experience Research Team and great co-authors, tried to understand if the different colour terms in French for PURPLE could explain the inconsistencies around the category boundaries, focal colours, and colour-emotion associations.

To do so, they tested the semantic breath and richness in semantic meaning of violet (basic colour term), pourpre, and lilas (both non-basic colour terms) in France, Algeria, and Switzerland. Frequency analyses of the 2079 responses were highly promising because i) the terms were not synonymous in meaning; ii) they found support for the basicness status of violet in French; they found evidence for a hierarchically structured semantic system, with the term colour being the most superordinate concept (i.e., colour triggered violet, lilac, and pourpre), followed by violet (i.e., violet triggered both pourpre and lilas), and finally lilas and pourpre (i.e., the latter terms did not trigger each other). Of note, violet triggered both RED and BLUE, conforming its position between the two colour categories.

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.