EFFECTS OF INTERIOR COLORS ON MOOD AND PREFERENCE: COMPARISONS OF TWO LIVING ROOMS


YILDIRIM K., HİDAYETOĞLU M. L., ÖZKAN A.

PERCEPTUAL AND MOTOR SKILLS, cilt.112, sa.2, ss.509-524, 2011 (SSCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 112 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2011
  • Doi Numarası: 10.2466/24.27.pms.112.2.509-524
  • Dergi Adı: PERCEPTUAL AND MOTOR SKILLS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.509-524
  • Gazi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The purpose was to assess whether various colors across room interiors do, in fact, evoke different moods. Digital images of two imaginary living rooms were used as the experimental settings. For each of the experiments, the rooms' spatial characteristics were fixed, with only the colors changed: either warm, cool, or achromatic colors. As predicted, warm colors tended to produce stronger participant responses when rating the scene on "high arousal," "exciting," and "stimulating." Cool colors tended be associated with "not very arousing," but to be rated higher on "spacious" and "restful." It is generally assumed that cool and achromatic colors evoke calmer and more peaceful emotions. The study's results show that the spatial characteristics of the imaginary spaces themselves affected participants' responses only on measures of "happiness" and "vividness." Lastly, sex differences were also found, with women's ratings generally more positive than those of men.