What color makes you feel envy? What color makes you feel anger? The answers here depend on which country you are from, according to a new study. When the researchers were given data on how a person associated colors with emotions, 80% of the time, they were able to accurately predict where that person came from.
The scientists surveyed 711 people from China, Germany, Greece, and the United Kingdom. Volunteers read the word for 12 colors, such as “green” and “turquoise.” They then indicated which of 20 emotions the colors brought to mind, and how strongly the color was tied to the feeling.
Across the board, the colors that inspired the most emotion were red, black, and pink, whereas brown and purple had weaker associations. Black was associated with sadness across all countries, for example, and red with positive emotions like love and pleasure, along with negative feelings such as anger and hate, the researchers report today in Royal Society Open Science.
Check out more details of this literally colorful study over at Science.
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