Another publication of the members of the Colour Lab.

Domicele Jonauskaite, Déborah Epicoco and Christine Mohr, together with international collaborators, have published an article in The British Psychology Society Journal. In this new publication the researchers investigated whether the colour-emotion associations are similar between individuals from different age groups. To answer this question, they analysed data from an internet survey gathered from 7393 pariticpants, aged between 16 and 88, and coming from 31 countries!

Their findings reveal a consistency in colour-emotion associations across different age demographics. Some disparities arise however, in particular when comparing adolescents with older individuals. It turns out that older people tend to associate fewer emotions to colours, they rate the associated emotions to be more intense and they display a preference for positive emotion associations. Read the article for more detailed information.

In sum, the study reveals a rather stable character of colour-emotion associations among different age groups and opens up an intriguing avenue for future research. A follow-up study could be designed to investigate whether colours have an impact on the actually felt emotions, in particular among the elderly. This would yeild valuable insights for the design of environments and products tailored to their needs, such as spaces within nursing homes, hospitals or medication packaging.

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