The sun is no fun without rain: Physical environments affect how we feel about yellow across 55 countries

Publication date: Available online 19 September 2019Source: Journal of Environmental PsychologyAuthor(s): Domicele Jonauskaite, Ahmed Abdel-Khalek, Ahmad Abu-Akel, Abdulrahman Saud Al-Rasheed, Jean-Philippe Antonietti, Árni Gunnar Ásgeirsson, Kokou Amenyona Atitsogbe, Marodégueba Barma, Daniel Barratt, Victoria Bogushevskaya, Maliha Khadidja Bouayed Meziane, Amer Chamseddine, Thammanard Charernboom, Eka Chkonia, Teofil Ciobanu, Violeta Corona, Allison Creed, Nele Dael, Hassan Daouk, Nevena DimitrovaAbstractAcross cultures, people associate colours with emotions. Here, we test the hypothesis that one driver of this cross-modal correspondence is the physical environment we live in. We focus on a prime example – the association of yellow with joy, – which conceivably arises because yellow is reminiscent of life-sustaining sunshine and pleasant weather. If so, this association should be especially strong in countries where sunny weather is a rare occurrence. We analysed yellow-joy associations of 6625 participants from 55 countries to investigate how yellow-joy associations varied geographically, climatologically, and seasonally. We assessed the distance to the equator, sunshine, precipitation, and daytime hours. Consistent with our hypotheses, participants who live further away from the equator and in rainier countries are more likely to associate yellow with joy. We did not find associations with seasonal variations. Our findings support a role for the physical environme...
Source: Journal of Environmental Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research