Colours of Emotion, Trust, and Exclusivity
A Cross-Cultural Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23738/CCSJ.140202Keywords:
colour, culture, emotion, trust, exclusivityAbstract
Colours influence the way people feel, think, and behave. Their effects seem to reflect stability across cultures which is enforced by the ongoing process of a globalising (internet) economy, causing traditions and beliefs to be transferred from one society to another. Nonetheless, although people may now act more globally, they also act locally within their cultural groups. Therefore, this study aims to investigate some cross-cultural colour associations. Specifically, a comparison is made with the colours for trust, emotion, and exclusivity between 1,218 individuals from four cultural groups: Dutch, French, Greek, and Russian. Having participated in an online survey, they indicated their perceptions and preferences for colour variations of blue, red, yellow, and black. The results suggest that for achieving the intended effect, a global colour scheme might initially suffice. Some distinctive independent cultural fine-tuning through varying colour brightness may possibly render the effect more or less strong for the colour-attitude relationships with red for emotion and blue for trust.
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