New comparison of psychological meaning of colors in samples and objects with semantic ratings

Tien-Rein Lee

doi:10.1117/12.464540

6 June 2002 New comparison of psychological meaning of colors in samples and objects with semantic ratings

Tien-Rein Lee

Proceedings Volume 4421, 9th Congress of the International Colour Association; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.464540
Event: 9th Congress of the International Color Association, 2001, Rochester, NY, United States

Abstract

In color preference and color-meaning research, color chips are widely used as stimuli. Are meanings of isolated color chips generalizeable to contextualized colors? According to Taft (1996), few significant differences exist between chip and object ratings for the same color. A similar survey was performed on 192 college students. This article reports the results of the study comparing semantic rating of color applied to a variety of familiar objects. The objects were a cup, T-shirt, sofa, car, notebook, and MP3 player, all images that represent daily life familiar objects. Subjects rated a set of 16 color chips, against 6 bipolar, 7-step semantic differential scales. The scales consisted of beautiful-ugly, soft-hard, warm-cool, elegant-vulgar, loud- discreet, and masculine-feminine. Analyses performed on the data indicated that unlike Taft's findings on 1996, significant differences existed between chip and object rating for the same color in every scale. The results of the study have implications for the use of color chips in color planning which suggest they are not compatible with the generality of results of the earlier color meaning research. Generally, a color judged to be beautiful, elegant and warm when presented as a chip does not equal beautiful, elegant, and warm when applied to the surface of an object such as a cup, T-shirt, sofa, car.

Citation Download Citation

Tien-Rein Lee "New comparison of psychological meaning of colors in samples and objects with semantic ratings", Proc. SPIE 4421, 9th Congress of the International Colour Association, (6 June 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.464540

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