A Link Between Colors and Emotions; A Study of Undergraduate Females

Abstract

This study examined the association of 3 primary colors blue, red and yellow (Munsell color system) and 3 neutral colors: black, white and grey to 4 emotions: happiness, fear, anger and sadness, in females 18-21 years old. The undergraduate females from various background, courses and age were required to associate the colors to the specific emotions and state why. It was predicted that the three primary colors would be associated with high energy emotions such as anger and happiness and the three neutral colors with low energy emotions such as sadness and fear in the sample. In the results, more than half of the subjects associated the primary colors with happiness, anger. Black, was associated majorly with happiness, red with fear, grey to sadness, White with fear. The color blue was poorly linked with anger and strongly with happiness like the color yellow across all the age groups.