The Red, White and Blues of Emotion:

Examining color hue effects on mood tones

April S. Oden and Shannon S. Sholtz

From the Department of Psychology at the Missouri Western State University, performed a study to see if different colors actually change a person’s mood. They took 60 psychology students and gave them four pieces of paper. The first paper had questions to evaluate them to see if they were good candidates for the study. The other 3 pieces of paper each had the 3 primary colors in light and dark shades, with a scale of 1-10 and boxes labeled calm, exciting and cheerful. The students were to mark what particular feeling the color gave them and to what degree. They collected and tallied the surveys. In conclusion, they found that lighter primary colors give a more calming effect and brighter colors give a more exciting effect. The different primary colors also gave them a different reactions related to being cheerful calm and exciting.