The Analytical Study of Affective Values of Color-Combinations

Artists and scientists have long been concerned with color “harmony” In this study 39 binary combinations of colors were analyzed by the SD (Semantic Differential) method in an effort to deternine whether there might not be other affective values in color combinations.In this experiment 39 color pairs, each color area being equal (2cm×2cm), were selected according to degree of color difference as measured by the color scale of Japan Color Research Institute and mounted on white sheets 6cm×10cm. In the experimental design, of the three attributes of color (hue, value and chroma), only one attribute was used as a variable and other two were kept constant. Subjects, reactions to these pairs were rated on 20 kinds of scales with 9-degree bipolar scale method which were derived from the free association response in the previous study. The subjects of this experiment were 30 (15 men and 15 women). The values for 20 scales on each pair were calculated and factor analysis done.The major findings of this study may be summarized as follows:(1) Four factors of affective value in color pairs were noted in percentages as indicated: pleasure (43%), brightness (21%), strength (19%), and warmth (8%). This suggests that pleasure is the dominant factor in paired colors. Of these four factors, warmth is peculiar to color; that is, it does not appear in other SD studies but one which concerned with color of buildings. The first three may correspond to the factors of evaluation, activity and potency which were discussed by Osgood & others.(2) The correlation coefficients between the ‘harmonious-inharmonious’ scale and the scales which had high weights of pleasure were constantly high. But correlation coefficients of the scales highly weighted with other factors were generally low.(3) It was found that the values on several scales increased or decreased as color difference between 2 component colors increased. The influence of difference in lightness on the change of affective values was stronger than that in hue or chroma.As hue-difference increased, the values of “melted, static, dull, vague, sober, weak” feelings decreased and those of “separated, dynamic, sharp, distinct, gay, strong” feelings increased. When lightness-difference increased, “unclear, light, melted, static, dull, vague, soft, weak” feelings decreased and “harmonious, smart, likable, pleasant, refined, beautiful, clear, sharp, distinct, hard, strong” feelings increased. And only “melted, vague” feelings decreased and “distinct, hard” feelings increased as chroma-difference increased.With respect to ‘harmonious-inharmonious’, the values of the present study do not always agree with the color harmony theory of Moon & Spencer.The warmth of color pairs seems to be defined by the mean value of the warmth of the 2 components.(4) Women tended to have the keen harmonious feeling rather than men in perceiving color combinations.