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The sun and how do we feel about the color yellow? Methodological concerns
Journal Pre-proof The sun and how do we feel about the color yellow? Methodological concerns Samy A. Azer PII:
S0272-4944(19)30762-5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101380
Reference:
YJEVP 101380
To appear in:
Journal of Environmental Psychology
Received Date: 2 November 2019 Revised Date:
20 November 2019
Accepted Date: 23 November 2019
Please cite this article as: Azer, S.A., The sun and how do we feel about the color yellow? Methodological concerns, Journal of Environmental Psychology (2019), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.jenvp.2019.101380. This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Letter to the Editor
The sun and how do we feel about the color yellow? Methodological concerns Samy A Azer MD, PhD, MPH, MEd Professor of medical education, Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh 11461, Saudi Arabia [email protected] OR [email protected]
All correspondence to: Professor Samy Azer MD, PhD (USyd), MEd (UNSW), FACG, MPH (UNSW), FRSM Professor of Medical Education Chair of Curriculum and Research Unit College of Medicine King Saud University P O Box 2925 Riyadh 11461 Saudi Arabia Phone:+966118066393 Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
The author declare that he has no conflict of interest
Abstract Jonauskaite et al. (2019) in a recent study reported that people from different cultures associate colors such as yellow with emotions. Their study comprised participants from 55 countries. The aim was to investigate the association of yellow-joy feelings with varied geographical locations, climatic changes, distance to equator, daytime hours and sunshine. They found the likelihood of yellow-joy association varied from 5.7% in Egypt to 87.7% in Finland. They concluded that participants who live further away from the equator and in rainier countries are more likely to associate yellow with joy. While there is interest in the authors’ findings, I thought we need to expose specific concerns about the methodological design and interpretation of findings. I summarize my comments about Jonauskaite and colleagues’ paper under two key points.
The sun and how do we feel about the color yellow? Methodological concerns To the Editor: Jonauskaite et al, (2019) in a recent study reported that people from different cultures associate colors such as yellow with emotions. Their study comprised participants from 55 countries. The aim was to investigate the association of yellow-joy feelings with varied geographical locations, climatic changes, distance to equator, daytime hours and sunshine. They found the likelihood of yellow-joy association varied from 5.7% in Egypt to 87.7% in Finland. They concluded that participants who live further away from the equator and in rainier countries are more likely to associate yellow with joy. While I am interested in the authors’ findings, I thought we need to expose specific concerns about the methodological design and interpretation of findings. I summarize my comments about Jonauskaite and colleagues’ paper under two points: First, one would wonder based on the authors' methodology, what were the bases for selecting the 55 countries and the recruitment of participants who had completed the questionnaires. While the study included 6625 participants, there were significant differences in the number of participants from each country. Participants were in the range of 20 to 30 from each of Bangladesh, Denmark, Gabon, Japan, Latvia, South Africa, Peru, Portugal, South Korea, and Zimbabwe. On the other hand, the numbers were in the range of 300 to over 400 for Azerbaijan, Greece, and Switzerland (Jonauskaite et al., 2019). While the authors tested several variables to assess their hypothesis for such association, they did not adequately assess cultural differences in such association. Second, while the authors tried to discuss the impact of cultural and environmental changes, they ignored the significance of colors and their meaning in a culture. For example, Egypt scored the lowest as per the authors' results. However, no explanation for this finding was provided. How do Egyptians perceive yellow? With the variability noted in the number of participants, are questionnaires, the ideal tool to inform us about the cultural perception of colors? (Artino et al., 2014). Idiomatic expressions of colors have been shown to challenge the metaphorical layer of language and reveal the deeper meanings of colors embedded in a culture. They are probably more reliable in examining such area (Waite, 2019). A study of the color idiomatic expressions in the Egyptian Nobel Prize Laureate's novel "The Thief and the Dogs" (Mahfouz, 1989) revealed that in the Egyptian culture, the yellow is viewed negatively. Not as "joy" as reported by authors. An idiomatic expression in the novel, such as "yellow as a lemon" is a symbol of death, unwell, disease, and fear. Additional idiomatic expression identified in the novel, "yellow-eyed" and "he gave a yellow-eyed look" are expressive of jealousy, envy, discontent and resentful (Salim & Mehawesh, 2013). These idiomatic expressions are unique to the Egyptian culture and do not reflect other countries in the Arabic speaking countries (Salim & Mehawesh, 2013). These negative associations with yellow may explain the reported lower likelihood of associating yellow with joy by Egyptians. In summary, the study presents an advancement to our understanding of this area. There may be some concern that people responding to the questionnaire in the study could have been living in these countries but not necessarily have adequate knowledge about the rooted culture or able to define the cultural norms related to the meaning of colors. To overcome such limitation, an analysis of idiomatic expressions about colors in various cultures as per authentic literature (Waite, 2019) may yield additional supportive evidence and enable the interpretation of findings in the study.
References Artino A.R. Jr, La Rochelle J.S., Dezee K.J., Gehlbach H., 2014. Developing questionnaires for educational research: AMEE Guide No. 87. Medical Teacher. 36(6):463-74. doi: 10.3109/0142159X.2014.889814. Epub 2014 Mar 24. Jonauskaite, D., Abdel-Khalek, A. M., Abu-Akel, A., Al-Rasheed, A. S., Antonietti, J.-P., Ásgeirsson, Á. G., Atitsogbe, K. A., Barma, M., Barratt, D., Bogushevskaya, V., Bouayed Meziane, M. K., Chamseddine, A., Charernboom, T., Chkonia, E., Ciobanu,T., Corona Cabrera, V., Creed, A., Dael, N., Daouk, H., Dimitrova, N., Doorenbos, C. B., Fomins, S., FonsecaPedrero, E., Gaspar, A., Gizdic, A., Griber, Y. A., Grimshaw, G. M., Hasan, A. A., Havelka, J., Hirnstein, M., Karlsson, B. S., Jejoong, K., Konstantinou, N., Laurent, E., Lindeman, M., Manav, B., Marquardt, L., Mefoh, P., Mroczko-Wąsowicz, A., Mutandwa, P., Muthusi, S., Ngabolo, G., Oberfeld, D., Papadatou-Pastou, M., Perchtold, C. M., Pérez-Albéniz, A., Pouyan, N., Rashid Soron, T., Roinishvili, M., Romanyuk, L., Salgado Montejo, A., Sultanova, A., Tau, R., Uusküla, M., Vainio, S., Vargas, V., Volkan, E., Wąsowicz, G., Zdravković, S., Zhang, M., & Mohr, C. The sun is no fun without rain: Natural environments affect how we feel about yellow across 55 countries. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 2019 In press https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101350
Mahfouz N., 1989. The Thief and the Dogs. A novel. Penguin Random House, New York, The United States. Salim JA, Mehawesh M., 2013. Color idiomatic expressions in the translation of Naguib Mahfouz’s novel “The Thief and the dogs”: A case study. International Journal of English Language 3(4):107-116. Waite V., 2019. Human perception and interpretation of colour term idioms through their origins. The Journal of Teaching English For Specific and Academic Purposes. 7(2):255-262.
S0272-4944(19)30762-5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101380
Reference:
YJEVP 101380
To appear in:
Journal of Environmental Psychology
Received Date: 2 November 2019 Revised Date:
20 November 2019
Accepted Date: 23 November 2019
Please cite this article as: Azer, S.A., The sun and how do we feel about the color yellow? Methodological concerns, Journal of Environmental Psychology (2019), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.jenvp.2019.101380. This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Letter to the Editor
The sun and how do we feel about the color yellow? Methodological concerns Samy A Azer MD, PhD, MPH, MEd Professor of medical education, Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh 11461, Saudi Arabia [email protected] OR [email protected]
All correspondence to: Professor Samy Azer MD, PhD (USyd), MEd (UNSW), FACG, MPH (UNSW), FRSM Professor of Medical Education Chair of Curriculum and Research Unit College of Medicine King Saud University P O Box 2925 Riyadh 11461 Saudi Arabia Phone:+966118066393 Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
The author declare that he has no conflict of interest
Abstract Jonauskaite et al. (2019) in a recent study reported that people from different cultures associate colors such as yellow with emotions. Their study comprised participants from 55 countries. The aim was to investigate the association of yellow-joy feelings with varied geographical locations, climatic changes, distance to equator, daytime hours and sunshine. They found the likelihood of yellow-joy association varied from 5.7% in Egypt to 87.7% in Finland. They concluded that participants who live further away from the equator and in rainier countries are more likely to associate yellow with joy. While there is interest in the authors’ findings, I thought we need to expose specific concerns about the methodological design and interpretation of findings. I summarize my comments about Jonauskaite and colleagues’ paper under two key points.
The sun and how do we feel about the color yellow? Methodological concerns To the Editor: Jonauskaite et al, (2019) in a recent study reported that people from different cultures associate colors such as yellow with emotions. Their study comprised participants from 55 countries. The aim was to investigate the association of yellow-joy feelings with varied geographical locations, climatic changes, distance to equator, daytime hours and sunshine. They found the likelihood of yellow-joy association varied from 5.7% in Egypt to 87.7% in Finland. They concluded that participants who live further away from the equator and in rainier countries are more likely to associate yellow with joy. While I am interested in the authors’ findings, I thought we need to expose specific concerns about the methodological design and interpretation of findings. I summarize my comments about Jonauskaite and colleagues’ paper under two points: First, one would wonder based on the authors' methodology, what were the bases for selecting the 55 countries and the recruitment of participants who had completed the questionnaires. While the study included 6625 participants, there were significant differences in the number of participants from each country. Participants were in the range of 20 to 30 from each of Bangladesh, Denmark, Gabon, Japan, Latvia, South Africa, Peru, Portugal, South Korea, and Zimbabwe. On the other hand, the numbers were in the range of 300 to over 400 for Azerbaijan, Greece, and Switzerland (Jonauskaite et al., 2019). While the authors tested several variables to assess their hypothesis for such association, they did not adequately assess cultural differences in such association. Second, while the authors tried to discuss the impact of cultural and environmental changes, they ignored the significance of colors and their meaning in a culture. For example, Egypt scored the lowest as per the authors' results. However, no explanation for this finding was provided. How do Egyptians perceive yellow? With the variability noted in the number of participants, are questionnaires, the ideal tool to inform us about the cultural perception of colors? (Artino et al., 2014). Idiomatic expressions of colors have been shown to challenge the metaphorical layer of language and reveal the deeper meanings of colors embedded in a culture. They are probably more reliable in examining such area (Waite, 2019). A study of the color idiomatic expressions in the Egyptian Nobel Prize Laureate's novel "The Thief and the Dogs" (Mahfouz, 1989) revealed that in the Egyptian culture, the yellow is viewed negatively. Not as "joy" as reported by authors. An idiomatic expression in the novel, such as "yellow as a lemon" is a symbol of death, unwell, disease, and fear. Additional idiomatic expression identified in the novel, "yellow-eyed" and "he gave a yellow-eyed look" are expressive of jealousy, envy, discontent and resentful (Salim & Mehawesh, 2013). These idiomatic expressions are unique to the Egyptian culture and do not reflect other countries in the Arabic speaking countries (Salim & Mehawesh, 2013). These negative associations with yellow may explain the reported lower likelihood of associating yellow with joy by Egyptians. In summary, the study presents an advancement to our understanding of this area. There may be some concern that people responding to the questionnaire in the study could have been living in these countries but not necessarily have adequate knowledge about the rooted culture or able to define the cultural norms related to the meaning of colors. To overcome such limitation, an analysis of idiomatic expressions about colors in various cultures as per authentic literature (Waite, 2019) may yield additional supportive evidence and enable the interpretation of findings in the study.
References Artino A.R. Jr, La Rochelle J.S., Dezee K.J., Gehlbach H., 2014. Developing questionnaires for educational research: AMEE Guide No. 87. Medical Teacher. 36(6):463-74. doi: 10.3109/0142159X.2014.889814. Epub 2014 Mar 24. Jonauskaite, D., Abdel-Khalek, A. M., Abu-Akel, A., Al-Rasheed, A. S., Antonietti, J.-P., Ásgeirsson, Á. G., Atitsogbe, K. A., Barma, M., Barratt, D., Bogushevskaya, V., Bouayed Meziane, M. K., Chamseddine, A., Charernboom, T., Chkonia, E., Ciobanu,T., Corona Cabrera, V., Creed, A., Dael, N., Daouk, H., Dimitrova, N., Doorenbos, C. B., Fomins, S., FonsecaPedrero, E., Gaspar, A., Gizdic, A., Griber, Y. A., Grimshaw, G. M., Hasan, A. A., Havelka, J., Hirnstein, M., Karlsson, B. S., Jejoong, K., Konstantinou, N., Laurent, E., Lindeman, M., Manav, B., Marquardt, L., Mefoh, P., Mroczko-Wąsowicz, A., Mutandwa, P., Muthusi, S., Ngabolo, G., Oberfeld, D., Papadatou-Pastou, M., Perchtold, C. M., Pérez-Albéniz, A., Pouyan, N., Rashid Soron, T., Roinishvili, M., Romanyuk, L., Salgado Montejo, A., Sultanova, A., Tau, R., Uusküla, M., Vainio, S., Vargas, V., Volkan, E., Wąsowicz, G., Zdravković, S., Zhang, M., & Mohr, C. The sun is no fun without rain: Natural environments affect how we feel about yellow across 55 countries. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 2019 In press https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101350
Mahfouz N., 1989. The Thief and the Dogs. A novel. Penguin Random House, New York, The United States. Salim JA, Mehawesh M., 2013. Color idiomatic expressions in the translation of Naguib Mahfouz’s novel “The Thief and the dogs”: A case study. International Journal of English Language 3(4):107-116. Waite V., 2019. Human perception and interpretation of colour term idioms through their origins. The Journal of Teaching English For Specific and Academic Purposes. 7(2):255-262.