- Email: [email protected]
Universal vs learned emotional responses to colors: Afterthoughts to thesis research
77~ AH\ 111P.\vc hothcrtrp~.
UNIVERSAL
Vol. 9 pp. 245-247,
Ankho
VS LEARNED
International
Inc..
EMOTIONAL
AFTERTHOUGHTS
1982. Printed
m the U.S.A.
RESPONSES
TO COLORS:
TO THESIS RESEARCH
ISOLDE G. MARTIN, M.A.*
The art psychotherapist by the very nature of his/her professional tool is most closely involved in the application of color in a therapeutic way. At the same time, the relationship between colors and affect is not clearly understood. One of the most often discussed theories in the relevant literature is that emotional responses to colors are universal and therefore most likely innate. Almost contrary to this approach is the reasoning that the color-affect relationship is acquired by learning such as operant, classical, or observational mechanisms. There are also advocates arguing a combination of both. This being the current state of knowledge, the practitioner may have the difficult task to keep research findings in mind while applying the tool of colors at the same time. Thus, it is necessary to study the relevant data. Many research findings appear to lend support to the first theory. Cross cultural studies, by their very nature, are most convincing that a universal factor is at work. A particularly esoteric example was a study conducted by D’ Andrade and Egan (1974). These researchers used “Tzeltal-speaking adults from highland Chiapas” and compared them to U.S. college students. It was found that both populations showed similar patterns in matching color chips and emotion terms. Other such studies were conducted in foreign countries such as Israel and Japan. The results showed that certain colors appeared to arouse certain feelings as, for example, “excitement, warmth, and pleasure.” One most impressive, as well as most inclusive, investigation was conducted by Adams and *Isolde Martin 1s currently with the Fernald completing her internship in psychotherapy
School Psychology at Harbor General
Osgood (1973) using 23 groups of 40 teenage male high school students. This study also revealed cross-cultural similarities in feelings about colors. Some of the findings were: black and grey are bad; white, blue, and green are good; yellow, white and grey are weak; red and black are strong: black and grey are passive; red is active. Results were interpreted in terms of existing universal trends in the attribution of affect to colors. The most well known and perhaps scientifically most convincing evidence that there are universal affective meanings to colors was produced by Wilson (1966). This researcher discovered that the color red was more arousing than green as measured by galvanic skin response. These findings, however, do not let the issue rest in peace, for it appears that the precise opposite could also be true. That is to say there are equally impressive research results supporting the notion that affective responses to colors could be learned. The most convincing studies should be cited here. As early as 1933, Staples and Walton conducted a study in which they gave children toys to play with to create a “pleasurable experience.” This activity was accompanied by lights of a particular color. Having been tested for color preferences before, following these “pleasurable experiences” the subjects showed a “decided increase in the affective value” of the given light color. Another somewhat breathtaking finding in favor of the learning theory resulted from Goldberg’s study ( 1977). Japanese nursery schoolers were asked to sort objects into “liked” and “disliked” categories. Then they were asked whether Laboratory at the University of California, Hospital/UCLA Medical Center, Torrance,
0197-4556/82/040245-03$03 00/O Copyright ” 1982 Ankho lnternatlonal Inc.
Los Angeles CA.
and is
246
ISOLDE
a replica of each was in a white or black box. Unlike the American sample, there was no greater attribution of the positively evaluated objects to the white box than to the black box. A particularly strong scientific case in point was set by a study designed within the behaviorism mode (Peters, 1943). Subjects were required to give affective judgments of eight colors. A week later the subjects solved a learning problem in which they were required to make positive responses to the same colors. After another week the affective judgments were repeated. Results showed that subjects of the experimental group who observed with a perceptual, i.e., concrete set, changed their judgments by increasing the number of preferences in proportion to the number of positive responses in learning. By deductive reasoning, another experiment conducted by Crane and Levy ( 1962) could be seen as a case in point. Their study revealed that color might be seen in context rather than as an isolated entity. It was found that colors were scalable in relation to emotional significance of given situations. If colors had universal meaning it would appear more likely to be independent of situational factors. This puzzling situation concerning the issue universal vs learned emotional responses to colors could eventually find a solution in the notion that both might be existing. One of the earliest advocates of this possibility was Ernest Schachtel (1943). From his studies he concluded that, although groups of people show similar responses to colors, at times it might be necessary to know a person’s life history to understand a given color response. The latter is more likely the result of learning than an innate matter. Schachtel argued that colors can have different meanings. Using red as an example, he pointed out that this color can be used to indicate passionate love, joy, sex, as well as rage, destruction, battle. and murder. Thus, Schachtel believed in color-memory engrams which he thought to be formed by repeated impressions from colors. This, again, appeared to suggest learning to take place since repetition was necessary to form engrams. Based on such historical background, this writer attempted to design a study with the intent to shed more light on the subject of universal vs learned emotional responses to colors. The nec-
G. MARTIN essary assumption that there is an emotional response to color was rested on Hermann Rorschach’s abundance of empirical data concerning the issue. From his observations, Rorschach concluded that an “internal relationship must exist between color perception and the dynamics of affectivity” (1942, p. 192). The hypothesis was further based on Schachtel’s theory of memory engrams, on Peters’ finding that color preferences can be changed through experimentally induced conditioning, and on Crane and Levy’s results that colors were scalable according to emotional significance of situations within which colors appeared. Thus. it was reasoned that if emotional responses to colors are the result of learning, such as classical conditioning, operant conditioning, or learning by observation, there should be a correlation between emotional responses to color and a person’s past experiences associated with a given color. To test this hypothesis, 25 college students were recruited. First, subjects were asked to rank order plates of nine different colors according to their preferences from highest to lowest. After the passage of two weeks subjects reviewed the same color plates with the objective to recall an event or a series of events of which each color reminded them. Each “happening,” as it was termed in the questionnaire, was to be rated according to pleasantness on a scale from I (very pleasant) to 5 (very unpleasant). It was reasoned that a positive correlation between the rank order positions of the colors and the rating of memories associated with these colors would indicate the possible existence of a learning factor. While the overall results were statistically inconclusive, the responses most consistent with the hypothesis were located in rank order positions 1. 2, and 3 in correlation with categories very pleasant (used 52 times) and pleasant (used 71 times). The category “neutral” was frequently used (64 times) compared to categories “unpleasant” (22 times) and “very unpleasant” (16 times). If one could accept the possibility that subjects attempted to avoid painful memories and used “neutral” instead, the results in both “pleasant” and “very pleasant” categories became more interesting. Figure 1, derived from these categories, indicated a positive relationship be-
EMOTIONAL
Fig. 1. Response
distribution
for rank order
positions
RESPONSES
1 to 3
tween memories and color preferences, thus being in line with the hypothesis as well as Peters’, Crane and Levy’s, and Schachtel’s implications. From this review, it appears obvious that neither a learning factor nor a universal one has been established as the overall variable in people’s emotional responses to colors. Since both theories can provide a substantial data basis, one is compelled to speculate that there might well be an interaction between universal and learned factors. Schachtel’s ideas were an early hint. There is also the possibility that at a given time either factor could be true exclusively. To complicate one also should consider matters further, whether conditioning or other kinds of learning could extinguish an originally existing universal reaction tendency. This state of knowledge leaves the art therapist in a particularly ambiguous situation. The practitioner utilizing color in therapy may be well advised to keep all possibilities in mind: that responses to colors could be learned, or that they could be based on universal principles, that
TO COLORS
241
learned and universal factors could produce a net effect, that for a given individual and a given color either is possible in an idiosyncratic way. Needless to say, to apply colors therapeutically under such conditions is a task challenging the skills of a therapist. Further research is therefore urgently needed. It appears that it would be most beneficial for the practitioner if it could be determined whether learning mechanisms can overcome possible universal or innate responses to colors. With such knowledge idiosyncratic affective meanings of colors could perhaps be more easily established which, ultimately, can benefit both client and therapist.
REFERENCES ADAMS, F. M. & OSGOOD, C. E. (1973) A cross-cultural study of the affective meanings of color. Jc~lrrntr/ qf C~~,.r.\-C&~rrrr/ Ps?.L./~/o~:\.. June. 4(2), 135-156. CRANE, R. R. & LEVY. B. I. (1962) Color scales in responses to emottonally laden situations. Jolrrtttrl c!f‘Crjn.,/r/tin,q P.t~c~lm/o~~. 26f6). 5 15-5 19. D’ANDRADE. R. & EGAN, M. (1974) The colors of emotion. A,)lc,fic,tr,~ Erhno/r,~:i~t. February, I( 1). 4963. GOLDBERG, F. J.. IWAWAKI, S., YUKAWA, T., IWATA. J-I. & IKEGAMI. K. (1977) Affective associattons by Japanese preschool children to black and white boxes. P.\yc /to/o~ic~n/ Reporr., , April, 40(2), 5 15-52 1. PETERS. H A t.1943) Expertmental studies of the Judgemental theory of feeling: V. The influence of set upon the affecttve values of colors. J0rtrr~trl of’ Erper;n~enrtr/ p,\vc+o/og~. 33. 285-298. RORSCHACH, H. (1964) Ps~c~hodirr~no.st~c~s. (Translation: Grune & Stratton, 1%4) Hans Huber, Beme. Switzerland, 1942. SCHACHTEL, E. G. (1943) On color and affect. P\yc &try, 6. 393-409. STAPLES. R. & WALTON, W. E. (1933) A study of pleasurable experience as a factor in color preference. J~~~rrr~tr/ of G‘cr~etic P.\~c~h,~/~~~.v.43, 217-223. WILSON, G. C. (1966) Arousal properties of red vs. green. Perc~~pt~ccd trrrdMofor S/d/.\. 23(3 Pt. 1). 947-949.
UNIVERSAL
Vol. 9 pp. 245-247,
Ankho
VS LEARNED
International
Inc..
EMOTIONAL
AFTERTHOUGHTS
1982. Printed
m the U.S.A.
RESPONSES
TO COLORS:
TO THESIS RESEARCH
ISOLDE G. MARTIN, M.A.*
The art psychotherapist by the very nature of his/her professional tool is most closely involved in the application of color in a therapeutic way. At the same time, the relationship between colors and affect is not clearly understood. One of the most often discussed theories in the relevant literature is that emotional responses to colors are universal and therefore most likely innate. Almost contrary to this approach is the reasoning that the color-affect relationship is acquired by learning such as operant, classical, or observational mechanisms. There are also advocates arguing a combination of both. This being the current state of knowledge, the practitioner may have the difficult task to keep research findings in mind while applying the tool of colors at the same time. Thus, it is necessary to study the relevant data. Many research findings appear to lend support to the first theory. Cross cultural studies, by their very nature, are most convincing that a universal factor is at work. A particularly esoteric example was a study conducted by D’ Andrade and Egan (1974). These researchers used “Tzeltal-speaking adults from highland Chiapas” and compared them to U.S. college students. It was found that both populations showed similar patterns in matching color chips and emotion terms. Other such studies were conducted in foreign countries such as Israel and Japan. The results showed that certain colors appeared to arouse certain feelings as, for example, “excitement, warmth, and pleasure.” One most impressive, as well as most inclusive, investigation was conducted by Adams and *Isolde Martin 1s currently with the Fernald completing her internship in psychotherapy
School Psychology at Harbor General
Osgood (1973) using 23 groups of 40 teenage male high school students. This study also revealed cross-cultural similarities in feelings about colors. Some of the findings were: black and grey are bad; white, blue, and green are good; yellow, white and grey are weak; red and black are strong: black and grey are passive; red is active. Results were interpreted in terms of existing universal trends in the attribution of affect to colors. The most well known and perhaps scientifically most convincing evidence that there are universal affective meanings to colors was produced by Wilson (1966). This researcher discovered that the color red was more arousing than green as measured by galvanic skin response. These findings, however, do not let the issue rest in peace, for it appears that the precise opposite could also be true. That is to say there are equally impressive research results supporting the notion that affective responses to colors could be learned. The most convincing studies should be cited here. As early as 1933, Staples and Walton conducted a study in which they gave children toys to play with to create a “pleasurable experience.” This activity was accompanied by lights of a particular color. Having been tested for color preferences before, following these “pleasurable experiences” the subjects showed a “decided increase in the affective value” of the given light color. Another somewhat breathtaking finding in favor of the learning theory resulted from Goldberg’s study ( 1977). Japanese nursery schoolers were asked to sort objects into “liked” and “disliked” categories. Then they were asked whether Laboratory at the University of California, Hospital/UCLA Medical Center, Torrance,
0197-4556/82/040245-03$03 00/O Copyright ” 1982 Ankho lnternatlonal Inc.
Los Angeles CA.
and is
246
ISOLDE
a replica of each was in a white or black box. Unlike the American sample, there was no greater attribution of the positively evaluated objects to the white box than to the black box. A particularly strong scientific case in point was set by a study designed within the behaviorism mode (Peters, 1943). Subjects were required to give affective judgments of eight colors. A week later the subjects solved a learning problem in which they were required to make positive responses to the same colors. After another week the affective judgments were repeated. Results showed that subjects of the experimental group who observed with a perceptual, i.e., concrete set, changed their judgments by increasing the number of preferences in proportion to the number of positive responses in learning. By deductive reasoning, another experiment conducted by Crane and Levy ( 1962) could be seen as a case in point. Their study revealed that color might be seen in context rather than as an isolated entity. It was found that colors were scalable in relation to emotional significance of given situations. If colors had universal meaning it would appear more likely to be independent of situational factors. This puzzling situation concerning the issue universal vs learned emotional responses to colors could eventually find a solution in the notion that both might be existing. One of the earliest advocates of this possibility was Ernest Schachtel (1943). From his studies he concluded that, although groups of people show similar responses to colors, at times it might be necessary to know a person’s life history to understand a given color response. The latter is more likely the result of learning than an innate matter. Schachtel argued that colors can have different meanings. Using red as an example, he pointed out that this color can be used to indicate passionate love, joy, sex, as well as rage, destruction, battle. and murder. Thus, Schachtel believed in color-memory engrams which he thought to be formed by repeated impressions from colors. This, again, appeared to suggest learning to take place since repetition was necessary to form engrams. Based on such historical background, this writer attempted to design a study with the intent to shed more light on the subject of universal vs learned emotional responses to colors. The nec-
G. MARTIN essary assumption that there is an emotional response to color was rested on Hermann Rorschach’s abundance of empirical data concerning the issue. From his observations, Rorschach concluded that an “internal relationship must exist between color perception and the dynamics of affectivity” (1942, p. 192). The hypothesis was further based on Schachtel’s theory of memory engrams, on Peters’ finding that color preferences can be changed through experimentally induced conditioning, and on Crane and Levy’s results that colors were scalable according to emotional significance of situations within which colors appeared. Thus. it was reasoned that if emotional responses to colors are the result of learning, such as classical conditioning, operant conditioning, or learning by observation, there should be a correlation between emotional responses to color and a person’s past experiences associated with a given color. To test this hypothesis, 25 college students were recruited. First, subjects were asked to rank order plates of nine different colors according to their preferences from highest to lowest. After the passage of two weeks subjects reviewed the same color plates with the objective to recall an event or a series of events of which each color reminded them. Each “happening,” as it was termed in the questionnaire, was to be rated according to pleasantness on a scale from I (very pleasant) to 5 (very unpleasant). It was reasoned that a positive correlation between the rank order positions of the colors and the rating of memories associated with these colors would indicate the possible existence of a learning factor. While the overall results were statistically inconclusive, the responses most consistent with the hypothesis were located in rank order positions 1. 2, and 3 in correlation with categories very pleasant (used 52 times) and pleasant (used 71 times). The category “neutral” was frequently used (64 times) compared to categories “unpleasant” (22 times) and “very unpleasant” (16 times). If one could accept the possibility that subjects attempted to avoid painful memories and used “neutral” instead, the results in both “pleasant” and “very pleasant” categories became more interesting. Figure 1, derived from these categories, indicated a positive relationship be-
EMOTIONAL
Fig. 1. Response
distribution
for rank order
positions
RESPONSES
1 to 3
tween memories and color preferences, thus being in line with the hypothesis as well as Peters’, Crane and Levy’s, and Schachtel’s implications. From this review, it appears obvious that neither a learning factor nor a universal one has been established as the overall variable in people’s emotional responses to colors. Since both theories can provide a substantial data basis, one is compelled to speculate that there might well be an interaction between universal and learned factors. Schachtel’s ideas were an early hint. There is also the possibility that at a given time either factor could be true exclusively. To complicate one also should consider matters further, whether conditioning or other kinds of learning could extinguish an originally existing universal reaction tendency. This state of knowledge leaves the art therapist in a particularly ambiguous situation. The practitioner utilizing color in therapy may be well advised to keep all possibilities in mind: that responses to colors could be learned, or that they could be based on universal principles, that
TO COLORS
241
learned and universal factors could produce a net effect, that for a given individual and a given color either is possible in an idiosyncratic way. Needless to say, to apply colors therapeutically under such conditions is a task challenging the skills of a therapist. Further research is therefore urgently needed. It appears that it would be most beneficial for the practitioner if it could be determined whether learning mechanisms can overcome possible universal or innate responses to colors. With such knowledge idiosyncratic affective meanings of colors could perhaps be more easily established which, ultimately, can benefit both client and therapist.
REFERENCES ADAMS, F. M. & OSGOOD, C. E. (1973) A cross-cultural study of the affective meanings of color. Jc~lrrntr/ qf C~~,.r.\-C&~rrrr/ Ps?.L./~/o~:\.. June. 4(2), 135-156. CRANE, R. R. & LEVY. B. I. (1962) Color scales in responses to emottonally laden situations. Jolrrtttrl c!f‘Crjn.,/r/tin,q P.t~c~lm/o~~. 26f6). 5 15-5 19. D’ANDRADE. R. & EGAN, M. (1974) The colors of emotion. A,)lc,fic,tr,~ Erhno/r,~:i~t. February, I( 1). 4963. GOLDBERG, F. J.. IWAWAKI, S., YUKAWA, T., IWATA. J-I. & IKEGAMI. K. (1977) Affective associattons by Japanese preschool children to black and white boxes. P.\yc /to/o~ic~n/ Reporr., , April, 40(2), 5 15-52 1. PETERS. H A t.1943) Expertmental studies of the Judgemental theory of feeling: V. The influence of set upon the affecttve values of colors. J0rtrr~trl of’ Erper;n~enrtr/ p,\vc+o/og~. 33. 285-298. RORSCHACH, H. (1964) Ps~c~hodirr~no.st~c~s. (Translation: Grune & Stratton, 1%4) Hans Huber, Beme. Switzerland, 1942. SCHACHTEL, E. G. (1943) On color and affect. P\yc &try, 6. 393-409. STAPLES. R. & WALTON, W. E. (1933) A study of pleasurable experience as a factor in color preference. J~~~rrr~tr/ of G‘cr~etic P.\~c~h,~/~~~.v.43, 217-223. WILSON, G. C. (1966) Arousal properties of red vs. green. Perc~~pt~ccd trrrdMofor S/d/.\. 23(3 Pt. 1). 947-949.