Browsing by Author "Vainio, Suvi"

The objective of the study is to analyse and compare colour-emotion associations on adults cross-culturally. Previous research has identified the need for studies that explore new colour-emotion associations, compare these findings cross-culturally and are based on large samples. Some previous colour-emotion associations have been identified. However, few studies have investigated gender differences and positive associations for national flag colours. Based on these facts four research problems are: 1) What kind of associations can be found between emotions and colours among the Finnish, the Chinese, the Norwegian and the Greek adults? 2) what are the strongest colour-emotion associations among these nations? 3) what are the main differences in the strongest colour-emotion associations between Finland and the other three nations? and 3) what is the relationship between colours in the country flag with associations related to these colours? The data (n=689) is based on an international study led by the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. The Geneva Emotion Wheel (GEW) method was used as a self-report assessment of emotions. Participants were asked to associate 12 colour names with any of the 20 emotions (displayed on the GEW) and rate their intensity in their native language. The data was collected in Finland (n=136), China (n=154), Greece (n=262) and Norway (n=137). Finland and Norway were chosen as these individual Nordic cultures are assumed to be similar contrast to group oriented China. Greece was added to the study as the colours of the country flag are similar in Finland and Greece (blue and white) in contrast to China and Norway that both have red. A series of Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U analyses suggested that there are several strong colour-emotion associations that vary between the cultures. There were fewer differences between the Finnish and the Norwegian associations than between the Greek and the Chinese associations indicating that the colour-emotions are learned and based on a variety of cultural factors rather than colour preferences, gender or biology. Only few gender differences were present. Internal consistency was very coherant in each country, indicating that group orientation vs. individualism does not affect to colour-emotion associations that significantly. Some universal patterns (e.g red-anger), were also present in this study. Positive and negative colours were identified. A positive relationship between the colours in the country flag and associations related to these colours could not be confirmed fully. There were more positive associations related with blue and white in Greece and Finland than in China but associations with red were not more positive in Norway than in Finland or Greece. These findings and limitations of the study are discussed and recommendations for further research are provided.