Perceptual (dis)similarities between colors and emotions: An empirical investigation with the image-based visual corpus analysis approach
Colors serve as an important embodied source of perceptual experiences for conceptualizing emotional concepts. This study offers an image-based visual corpus analysis on perceptual (dis)similarities among six basic color terms (black, white, red, green, yellow, blue) and 63 emotion-label words in En...
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| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-09-01
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| Series: | Acta Psychologica |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825007607 |
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| author | Jinmeng Dou Wenting Xue |
| author_facet | Jinmeng Dou Wenting Xue |
| author_sort | Jinmeng Dou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Colors serve as an important embodied source of perceptual experiences for conceptualizing emotional concepts. This study offers an image-based visual corpus analysis on perceptual (dis)similarities among six basic color terms (black, white, red, green, yellow, blue) and 63 emotion-label words in English. The investigation focuses on two primary questions: (i) whether the six colors are significantly different regarding their contributions in conceptualizing emotional concepts, and (ii) how color-emotion association patterns are shaped by valence and arousal. Empirical analyses were conducted and discussed using the degree of perceptual (dis)similarities between the target color terms and emotion words as an indicator of the strength of color-emotion associations, based on a dataset of 69*100 images collected from Google Image, comprising 63 emotion words and 6 color terms, with 100 images retrieved for each term. The results reveal that (i) significant differences exist among the six colors in their effectiveness at capturing affective (dis)similarities among various emotional concepts, as well as in their association strength with the affective domain, and (ii) the valence and arousal ratings of emotion words are significantly correlated to the strength of their associations with five of the six color terms, with the exception of blue. This study provides an image-based empirical exploration of the cognitive mechanisms responsible for color-emotion mappings, highlighting the essential and distinctive roles of colors in understanding emotional concepts. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-286cba0b863c4d10b99d0f54b74ecf1d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0001-6918 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-09-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Psychologica |
| spelling | doaj-art-286cba0b863c4d10b99d0f54b74ecf1d2025-08-23T04:47:19ZengElsevierActa Psychologica0001-69182025-09-0125910544710.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105447Perceptual (dis)similarities between colors and emotions: An empirical investigation with the image-based visual corpus analysis approachJinmeng Dou0Wenting Xue1Department of Chinese Language and Literature, School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, PR ChinaSchool of Foreign Languages, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, PR China; Corresponding author at: School of Foreign Languages, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No.1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, PR China.Colors serve as an important embodied source of perceptual experiences for conceptualizing emotional concepts. This study offers an image-based visual corpus analysis on perceptual (dis)similarities among six basic color terms (black, white, red, green, yellow, blue) and 63 emotion-label words in English. The investigation focuses on two primary questions: (i) whether the six colors are significantly different regarding their contributions in conceptualizing emotional concepts, and (ii) how color-emotion association patterns are shaped by valence and arousal. Empirical analyses were conducted and discussed using the degree of perceptual (dis)similarities between the target color terms and emotion words as an indicator of the strength of color-emotion associations, based on a dataset of 69*100 images collected from Google Image, comprising 63 emotion words and 6 color terms, with 100 images retrieved for each term. The results reveal that (i) significant differences exist among the six colors in their effectiveness at capturing affective (dis)similarities among various emotional concepts, as well as in their association strength with the affective domain, and (ii) the valence and arousal ratings of emotion words are significantly correlated to the strength of their associations with five of the six color terms, with the exception of blue. This study provides an image-based empirical exploration of the cognitive mechanisms responsible for color-emotion mappings, highlighting the essential and distinctive roles of colors in understanding emotional concepts.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825007607Emotion wordsColor termsValenceArousalEmbodied cognition |
| spellingShingle | Jinmeng Dou Wenting Xue Perceptual (dis)similarities between colors and emotions: An empirical investigation with the image-based visual corpus analysis approach Acta Psychologica Emotion words Color terms Valence Arousal Embodied cognition |
| title | Perceptual (dis)similarities between colors and emotions: An empirical investigation with the image-based visual corpus analysis approach |
| title_full | Perceptual (dis)similarities between colors and emotions: An empirical investigation with the image-based visual corpus analysis approach |
| title_fullStr | Perceptual (dis)similarities between colors and emotions: An empirical investigation with the image-based visual corpus analysis approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | Perceptual (dis)similarities between colors and emotions: An empirical investigation with the image-based visual corpus analysis approach |
| title_short | Perceptual (dis)similarities between colors and emotions: An empirical investigation with the image-based visual corpus analysis approach |
| title_sort | perceptual dis similarities between colors and emotions an empirical investigation with the image based visual corpus analysis approach |
| topic | Emotion words Color terms Valence Arousal Embodied cognition |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825007607 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jinmengdou perceptualdissimilaritiesbetweencolorsandemotionsanempiricalinvestigationwiththeimagebasedvisualcorpusanalysisapproach AT wentingxue perceptualdissimilaritiesbetweencolorsandemotionsanempiricalinvestigationwiththeimagebasedvisualcorpusanalysisapproach |