Factors Affecting Iranian Colour Emotion for Single-Colour Stimuli

The present research is defined to clarify the relationship between colour and emotion and to investigate the effects of culture, gender and age on colour emotion. Observers took part in a psychophysical experiment to evaluate the single colour stimuli using “heavy-light”, “warm-cool”, and “active-passive” colour emotional scales. These scales were chosen on the basis of the suggested emotional scales in Li Chen Ou's study. The observers divided into three different groups to investigate the effect of culture, gender and age on the colour emotional scales. The observer groups were female versus male, from Isfahan versus not from Isfahan and 20 to 30 years old versus 35 to 45 years old. Twenty colour stimuli which covered CIELAB colour space, reasonably, were presented on a calibrated LCD in a darkened room. The observers reported their emotional responses of each of the stimuli. The reported data were transformed to scale values using a categorical judgment method. The results showed that the effect of gender, culture and age on the “heavy-light”, “warm-cool” and “active-passive” colour emotional scales is insignificant. Examining the suggested colour emotional model of the previous study conducted by Li Chen Ou, showed the best determination coefficient between visual data and predicted ones for “heavy-light” colour emotional scales by R2=0.74.