A study of colour emotion and colour preference. Part III: Colour preference modeling

Abstract In this study three colour preference models for single colours were developed. The first model was developed on the basis of the colour emotions, clean–dirty, tense–relaxed, and heavy–light. In this model colour preference was found affected most by the emotional feeling “clean.” The second model was developed on the basis of the three colour‐emotion factors identified in Part I, colour activity, colour weight, and colour heat. By combining this model with the colour‐science‐based formulae of these three factors, which have been developed in Part I, one can predict colour preference of a test colour from its colour‐appearance attributes. The third colour preference model was directly developed from colour‐appearance attributes. In this model colour preference is determined by the colour difference between a test colour and the reference colour ( L*, a*, b* ) = (50, −8, 30). The above approaches to modeling single‐colour preference were also adopted in modeling colour preference for colour combinations. The results show that it was difficult to predict colour‐combination preference by colour emotions only. This study also clarifies the relationship between colour preference and colour harmony. The results show that although colour preference is strongly correlated with colour harmony, there are still colours of which the two scales disagree with each other. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 29, 381–389, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20047