Color me impressed! Psychology research links colors and emotions for over a century
The ideas of color theory suggests that colors can invoke emotions in their audience. Some colors can present feelings of peace, while others can create more high powered emotions. This is relevant to my capstone project because I am exploring creative ways to express calm in the car. How might color be altered in the interior to emphasize emotion?
"Different cultures have associated meanings to different colors. Green, yellow, and red may be linked to traffic signals. Brown, orange, and yellow may indicate a seasonal change in nature. Universities are often identified by their color branding. Roses can have specific meanings based on color: red for love, yellow for friendship, white for purity, gray for… well, maybe that rose is dead.
The studies had unique ways to investigate colors and emotions—from stimulus presentation to analysis. In their review, Jonauskaite and Mohr gathered the most reported affective concepts that were associated with colors. There were many-to-many correspondences. For example, happiness was associated with 8 different color categories. The authors painted the connections in a visual web below (Myers, 2025)."
"After studies were conducted, connections were made across data and determined that colors were connected to specific colors. The list below shows the color and the associated feelings based on the research study.
RED links to positive and negative, arousing, and high-power emotions (e.g., love, anger, passion)
YELLOW/ORANGE link to positive and high arousal emotions (e.g., happiness, pleasure, fun)
GREEN/BLUE/BLUE-GREEN link to positive and low arousal emotions (e.g., comfort, relaxation, happiness)
WHITE links to positive and low arousal emotions (e.g., relaxation, hope, relief)
BLACK/GREY link to negative, low and high-power emotions (e.g., fear, disappointment, anger)
Color dimensions can be defined in terms of lightness, saturation, and hue. The authors also found connotations between these features and affective terms. Lighter colors were tied to more positive emotions, while darker colors were more negative. Saturated colors were linked to positive, high arousal, and high power emotions, while desaturated colors were linked to negative, low arousal, and low power emotions. Regarding hue, cooler colors had more homogeneous affective terms, and warmer colors covered a wider variety of emotions.
Amazingly, these connections were pervasive across many years and many countries and cultures. The authors say these pooled results show that
“humans have remarkably consistent ways of linking colors to emotions. While each color can convey multiple emotions – like red signalling both love and anger – these associations follow systematic patterns based on lightness, saturation, and ‘color temperature (Myers, 2025).”
Color theory can provide us with insight into the emotional state that is invoked in the audience. We use color in everyday life to organize, provide emphasis, or create branding for recognizable places/advertisements. Color is a significant part of our daily lives, and it may influence our behavioral and emotional states more than we realize. This is specifically relevant to my capstone project because I am looking at ways to create a calming atmosphere. I am interested in using knowledge of color theory to explore emotions with designing visuals and ambient lightings in a car setting. I am focused on promoting a feeling of peace in the vehicle, which seems to be developed through greens, blues, and whites according to the article. I was fascinated with the ideas that people's relationship between color and emotion was linked across countries and culture. This universal idea of color is something that would be beneficial when thinking about accessible ways to provide a sense of peace. I also found that different dimensions of color to have an influence was interesting and is something I haven't thought of prior which will also help me to further create a peaceful atmosphere while on long trips.
References:
Myers, B. (2025, January 16). Color me impressed! Psychology research links colors and emotions for over a century. Psychonomic Society. https://featuredcontent.psychonomic.org/color-me-impressed-psychology-research-links-colors-and-emotions-for-over-a-century/
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