Colour-emotion associations in individuals with red-green colour blindness

Colours and emotions are associated in languages and traditions. Some of us may convey sadness by saying feeling blue or by wearing black clothes at funerals. The first example is a conceptual experience of colour and the second example is an immediate perceptual experience of colour. To investigate...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Jonauskaite, Domicele|||0000-0002-7513-9766, Camenzind, Lucia, Parraga, Carlos Alejandro|||0000-0002-3809-241X, Diouf, Cécile N., Mercapide Ducommun, Mathieu, Müller, Lauriane, Norberg, Mélanie, Mohr, Christine
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:255464
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/255464
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.7717/peerj.11180
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Colour vision deficiency
Daltonism
Dichromatic
Deuteranopia
Protanopia
Colour cognition
Emotion
Affect
Cross-modal correspondences
Chromotherapy
Descripción
Sumario:Colours and emotions are associated in languages and traditions. Some of us may convey sadness by saying feeling blue or by wearing black clothes at funerals. The first example is a conceptual experience of colour and the second example is an immediate perceptual experience of colour. To investigate whether one or the other type of experience more strongly drives colour-emotion associations, we tested 64 congenitally red-green colour-blind men and 66 non-colour-blind men. All participants associated 12 colours, presented as terms or patches, with 20 emotion concepts, and rated intensities of the associated emotions. We found that colour-blind and non-colour-blind men associated similar emotions with colours, irrespective of whether colours were conveyed via terms (r =.82) or patches (r =.80). The colour-emotion associations and the emotion intensities were not modulated by participants' severity of colour blindness. Hinting at some additional, although minor, role of actual colour perception, the consistencies in associations for colour terms and patches were higher in non-colour-blind than colour-blind men. Together, these results suggest that colour-emotion associations in adults do not require immediate perceptual colour experiences, as conceptual experiences are sufficient.