The Effects of Depression of the Color Selection of Subjects

Russell A. Edwards
Missouri Western State College
November 27,1995

Abstract

In the past, research has been done to see what effects color has on depression. The findings have been mixed and unclear as to if there actually is an effect. In this experiment a twist was put on the relationship between depression and color. The purpose of this study was to see if a person's level of depression had an effect on their color preference. The experiment was run on 46 college students in an introductory psychology class. The findings showed that while there was a tendency to pick one color over another, as the depression level rose, it wasn't strong enough to show a significant difference (F(2,43)= .2992,p>.05).

Introduction

Ever since the beginning of time it seems that people have associated feelings and emotions with colors. Luescher and Scott for instance even went so far as to say that a person with a preference for the color purple shows mental and emotional immaturity. This later failed empirical studies by Holmes, Fouty, Wurtz, & Burdick, 1985, Cernovsky & Fernando, 1988, Cernovsky, 1986, Holmes, Wurtz, Waln, Dungan, & Joseph, 1984 (Frenando, 1992).

Even though this theory was proven wrong, one can tell, by the number scientists who disproved it, that there is some wonderment about the effects of color on emotions. Another example of the effect color has on emotion is a test in which moods and performance were measured. In this experiment 45 female college students participated as subjects. The subjects would be divided into three groups of 15 and placed in office type environment to work for 1 hour. The independent variable in this experiment was the colors of the three offices. One office was colored with red or the warm color. The second office was a blue-green or the cool color. The last of the three rooms was the control and was painted white for the neutral color. Pretest and posttests measures were completed that measured for anxiety, depression and arousal. After the data were collected it was found that color had no effect on the anxiety, depression or arousal level in any of the subjects (Ainsworth, 1993).

While most of the data seems to conclude that color has no bearing on emotions like depression some studies have shown there might in fact be some link. In and experiment studying the effects of color on emotion there were two studies ran. The first study used an intense yellow, a blue violet and a cool green with a blue cast. In the second study the colors shown to the subjects were a light blue-green, a dark mustard yellow and a scarlet- vermillion. After each study the subject completed the Profile of Mood States. The results found that warm colors did provoke active feelings and that cool colors were more sedate (Levy, 1984).

Thus far all of the research and tests that have been done dealing with the use of color as a predictor of emotions. None however have looked to see if the emotion has an effect on the subjects selection of colors. The Luescher test, that try to define levels of depression based on color selection, have come closest. The problem with this is that he assumed that all depressed subjects would pick the same color. I purpose to start a little differently than Luescher (Fernando, 1992). I believe that one should look at what colors different subjects chose based on there level of depression. It is my belief that subjects with different levels of depression will chose different colors and by looking at there choices a scale can be made that will do exactly what Luescher set out to do. In this experiment I will be working with students at the undergraduate level. Because of anxiety level, which has been found to be associated with depression, of college students there should be some measure of depression. In work done by Buchalter (1985), she found that art work, done by students in a short term psychiatric center, displayed the use of bright colors. It seems that in the case of college students the bright colors will also be choose bright over darker ones. It seems that while none of the students will be manic depressives some of the students will have more levels of depression than normal. In these case the depression will not control the subject, but because of the anxiety they feel I believe they also will pick the bright colors in order to show hope that the feeling of depression will end or to try and hide the feelings of depression in order to fight the dissonance that they are encountering.

Methods

Subjects

Sixty students from the general psychology class at Missouri Western State College participated in the experiment. All the students were given the Beck Depression Inventory Scale. After which all of the students were given the choice of a reward that was packaged of wrapped in 3 colors a red/warm, blue/cool and a white/neutral color.

Materials

The materials consisted of the Beck depression test, because of the fact that it is internal validity. Other materials used consisted of rewards which was small amounts of candy wrapped in a red, blue or a white colored wrapping paper.

Procedure

The data was taken on a one time basis in a general psychology class. Each subject was given the same instructions, at the same time. The subjects then received the Beck depression test. After taking the test each subject was given there choice of one of the 3 colored rewards after picking the rewards a mark was made in the upper right had corner of that subjects test making the experimenter aware of the subjects choice of color. Then the test were scored based on the pre-set raking system. After the scores have been found the choice of color was correlated in to see if the level of depression has an effect on the subjects choice of colored reward.

Results

The findings of the experiment fail to reject the Ho: while there seemed to be a slight indication that the level of depression might influence color preference it again was not strong enough to to show a correlation. It was found that out of the 46 subjects tested 6.1 percent choose the white color, while 7.56 chose the red, and 8.1 chose the blue. The findings again showed no significant relationship between levels of depression and color choice (F (2, 43) = .2992, p>.05).

Discussion

It appears that by the results of this experiment that color preference wasn't affected by the subjects level of depression. An interesting side to this fact is that there was a slight tendency of people with higher levels of depression to chose the blue color. Even though it was slight, it gives some hope that there might be some correlation between the two variables. In further research it might be practical to test more individuals. Since the number of subjects in the test were so small it might be that the noise could be drastically lessoned with the addition of more subjects. Another area of the experiment that might also be examined is the use of colors. Both the blue and the red colors in this study had a dark rich tint and it's possible that the use of a yellow or brighter color for the warm shade might also help to show a significant result.

References

Ainsworth, R.A., Simpson, L., Cassell, D. (1993). Effects of three colors in an office interior on mood and performance. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 76, 235-241.

Buchalter, K.S. (1985). Observations concerning the art productions of depressed patients in a short term psychiatric facility. Arts in Psychotherapy, 12, 35-38.

Fernando, Z.Z.C., Harricharan, R. (1992). Color preference of DSM III-R Bipolars and Normal Controls. Social Behavior and Personality, 20, 247-250.

Levy, B.I. (1984). Research in to the psychological meaning of color. American Journal of Arts Therapy, 23, 58-62.

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