White is a color that can evoke a range of emotions, from protection and encouragement to peace and calm. It can create a sense of order and efficiency, making it a great choice for those looking to get their life in order. As the primary color, white gives off a clean and chaste impression. It has a “flawless” feel that can be perfect for the right website.
However, white can also be associated with purity, which can make it seem virtuous but also sterile and cold. To better understand how English speakers perceive the emotion of white, researchers at the University of Warwick conducted two studies. In the first study, participants were asked to select up to three colors from 23 color samples for each of the ten words of emotion. The results showed that four of the ten emotions showed consistency and approximately one third of the colors showed specificity.
However, when the data was resampled, none of these effects were likely to replicate with statistical confidence. In the second study, participants were asked to select up to three colors from an expanded set of colors and emotions. The results showed that only two of the 20 emotions showed consistency and three colors showed specificity. Additionally, saturation and luminosity were found to predict color-emotion agreement rather than perceived color.
The results suggest that previous studies that report pairings between emotions and colors are better thought of as specific experiments rather than generalizable findings. In addition, brightness seems to reflect a dimension of “activity” or “pleasure” while saturation reflects a dimension of “power” or “excitement”. Overall, white is a versatile color that can evoke a range of emotions depending on its context. It can be used to create a sense of order and efficiency or evoke feelings of purity and virtue.
While there is no single emotion associated with white, understanding how English speakers perceive it can help you make informed decisions about how to use it in your designs.
