DRS Common Ground International Conference

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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Youngsoon Park , Ph.D Yonsei University, Seoul
Korea Jiyoung Yoon, Ph.D Dongseo University,
Busan Korea Denise Guerin, Ph.D University of
Minnesota, U.S.A Sep. 2002
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Introduction
Color is an inherent visual property of form in
the natural and designed environments. As part
of the designed environment, interiors are
designed using color as well as the elements of
light, space, form, shape, line, and texture to
meet a variety of human needs. Interior
designers consider many aspects of color when
specifying the color palette of an environment
in the process of solving a design problem.
Functional and aesthetically pleasing interiors
have color palettes that reflect the meanings
users attach to specific colors. That works well
when working within a homogeneous culture where
color meanings are common to all, however
interior designers are frequently working within
multi-cultural environments, which may result in
people attaching various meanings and
significance to color. Color researchers have
investigated peoples social meanings and
responses to individual colors and their
separate dimensions, but what is lacking in past
research is the use of an instrument to study
the meaning of color in interior environments
based on an integrated view of colors within an
interior, or an integrated color palettes.
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Introduction

An integrated color palette is the combination of
several colors that are used for interior
components such as walls, floors, ceilings,
window treatments, and furnishings. It is
characterized by combining hue, value, and chroma
as well as color contrast, overlapping, and
adjacencies. Park and Guerin (1995) developed
such an integrated color palette to be used as a
visual research instrument to allow subjects to
focus only on the meaning of color in the
interior environment without influencing
cultural factors of furniture or artifacts.
This study used this integrated color palette to
identify differences in color meaning and color
preferences in interior environments in four
different cultures, American, English, Korean,
and Japanese.
palette A
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Review of Color Study

An important distinction, however, was
that previous studies investigated a single
color hue, not a designed selection of colors, or
the color palette, which is more representative
of how color is actually viewed by users in the
interior environment. The following literature
review summarizes some of the studies related to
color preference, color meaning, cross cultural
studies, and the method and instruments used to
investigate color.
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Review of Color Study
Theme
researcher
Findings Suggestions
defined meaning as a representational mediation
process that includes the interpretation and
expression of ideas
Color Meaning
Osgood (1961)
Sharpe,(1982) Websters(1992) Butterfield (1990)
Meaning occurs when a significance is formed in
the mind and may differ for each individual it
is subjective and based on various experiences,
education, and culture
Rapoport (1982)
socio-cultural forces are important in meaning
formation. different meanings are inferred by
different socio-cultural groups and similar
meanings occur across groups in relation to
shared experiences
Albers (1975)
In addition to the dimensions of hue, value, and
chroma, the relationships of color olor
contrast, overlapping, and adjacencies are
important factors in understanding color meaning
in the designed interior
Whitfield (1984)
His results showed that individual differences in
age, gender, and social status were related to
color selection and preference
Color Preference
the high-anxiety subgroups preferred less
saturated shades across the six colors tested
than did low-anxiety subjects. This may explain
some environmental differences in the experience
of anxiety or in reactions to physical settings
in general.
Ireland, Warren, and Herringer (1992)
Kwallek (1996)
assessed environmental characteristics of office
environments including a sense of spaciousness,
pleasantness, and unpleasantness in comparing
monochromatic red, green, and white office color
palettes. The white office was rated as the most
spacious and the most pleasant.
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Review of Color Study
Theme
researcher
Findings Suggestions
Contrast is a distinct difference between two
parts of the same color dimension, such as the
lightness or darkness of the value and
the weakness or strength of the chroma
Doyle, 1993
Color and Environment
Adjacency of colors considers the effect of
colors that are next to one another in an
interior (). This must be considered when
determining the total color palette one color
may appear different when viewed with a group of
colors.
Hope Walch, 1990
subjects made significantly fewer errors in a
way-finding task in a color coded building when
compared to subjects in a non-color coded
building. They suggested that color has enough
meaning to be used as a communication tool.
Evans, Fellows, Zorn, Doty , 1980

Mikellides (1990)
chromatic strength, and not hue, appeared to be
the key dimension affecting how exciting or
calming a color was perceived to be.
'weak' colors in a room give subjects the
impression of calmness while 'strong' colors made
it appear exciting. They used descriptor words to
investigate color characteristics in several
different studies (1967 1968a 1968b 1968c
1969 1972). Five representative factors of
interior color were found among the different
experiments - pleasantness, social, spatial
enclosedness, complexity, and unity.
Acking and Kuller (1972)
Description of Color Meaning
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Review of Color Study
Theme
researcher
Findings Suggestions
culture is one of the main underlying reasons why
individuals of various cultures prefer different
colors. color preference changed from earlier
developmental stages to later adulthood.
Choungourain, 1968 1969,
Cross-cultural Color Studies
conducted a comparative study on color preference
of 474 subjects in Tokyo, Taiwan, and Tianjin.
preferences of associative images of color are
based on environmental and cultural aspects and
may be one of the important factors that
influences color preference.
Saito (1994)
These studies indicate that there is a different
interpretation of the meaning of color based on
the subjects culture. However, color meaning was
studied as it related only to a single color,
i.e. red, blue, yellow. Until the recent
development of an instrument to study the
meaning of color in interior environments based
on color palettes (Guerin Park, 1995), it has
been difficult to comparatively study the
cultural meaning of color palettes.
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Hypothesis
The previous studies raise the following
questions Does the culture of a subject affect
the cultural preference and meaning of color
palettes for users of interior environments? If
so, what are the implications for interior
designers and the color palettes they use when
designing for diverse cultures? From the
literature review these three hypotheses were
developed.
HO1 There is a significant difference in the
meaning of interior color palettes among
English, Korean, Japanese, and United States
subjects. HO2 There is a significant
difference in the meaning of color palettes
between Eastern cultures (Korean and Japanese)
and Western cultures (United States and
English). HO3 There is a significant
difference in color palette preference among the
four different cultures.
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Methods
The purpose of the study was to use Guerin and
Parkss integrated color palette to identify
differences in the meaning and preference of
interior color palettes in four different
cultures. To collect data to explore this issue,
slides of six interior color palettes were shown
to subjects of four different cultures, English
(N115), Korean (N103), Japanese (N99), and
United States (N108) subjects. As the subjects
viewed each palette, they completed a
questionnaire comprised of descriptor words. The
subjects indicated the degree of presence of
that description in each palette.
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Color Palette Instrument
In a previous study (Guerin, et al), an
integrated color palette was developed is an
instrument to measure the meaning of color in the
interior environment. The integrated color
palette was a computer generated composition of
color including hue, value, and chroma
variations The integrated color palette is
composed of vertical and horizontal lines
and  shapes representative of those that occur in
interior environments. The proportion of the
two-dimensional shapes or sections represents the
different components in an interior. 1) Large
planes represent the walls, floor, and
ceiling. 2) Medium size planes represent
furnishings and window treatments. 3) The
smallest planes represent accessories. 4) The
asymmetrically balanced arrangement of various
sized rectangular shapes simulates the
relationships of interior color contrast,
overlapping, and adjacency.
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Color Palette Instrument
All six color palettes to control for the effect
of shape juxtaposition. Additionally, the
proportion of colors is represented by the
various sizes of color planes. The six
integrated color palettes were developed from
six pictures of residential living rooms, one
palette represented one picture. (For a complete
description of this process see Guerin Park,
1995).
DRS Common Ground International Conference
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Description of Color Palette
Fourteen words that described characteristics of
interior environments were used to determine
meaning subjects gave to each palette (see Table
1). The words were listed in random order on a
questionnaire with the same order for each
palette. A five point (0-5), single-word,
Likert-type scale was used to measure the degree
of presence of the characteristic, or meaning,
in each palette. Zero indicated the
characteristic, in the subject's opinion, was
not present five indicated the characteristic,
in the subject's opinion, was present to a large
degree. The degree of presence of the
characteristic, or meaning, increased as the
number increased. These words had been vaidated
as appropriate descriptors of interior
environments in other studies (Acking Kuller,
1967 Guerin Park, 1995). Words selected
Calming, Comfortable, Coordinated, Expensive,
Intricate, Inviting, Modest, Open, Ordered,
Pleasant, Rich, Sophisticated, Spacious,
Unified
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Color Dimension Measured
Five dimensions of each palette were measured
hue, value, chroma, value contrast, and chroma
contrast. First these components are discussed
then each palette is described based on
these characteristics. 1) Hue is defined by
Munsell (1946) as the distinctive characteristic
of any chromatic color distinguishing it from
other hues, such as are found in the spectrum or
between the ends of the spectrum. It is described
by using the color names red, yellow, green,
blue, or purple. 2) Value is defined as the
lightness or darkness of any color(Munsell, 1946).
Value is described as dark, middle, or light.
Munsell (1946) defined chroma as the strength or
weakness of a Chromatic color. 3) Chroma is
described as weak, moderate, or strong. Contrast
I defined as the form that appears when two
colors in contact seem different from what they
would when viewed separately (Munsell, 1946).
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
ltTable 1gt Color Dimension Measured
Palette A      Palette B 
   Palette C      Palette D      
Palette E       Palette F Hue    
Neutral (64.8)  Warm (79.9)  Warm
(68.5)  Neutral (76.5)   Neutral
(45.0)   Warm (84.1)         Cool
(27.3)    Neutral (18.8)  Cool
(23.8)    Warm (21.2)   Warm (30.7)  
 Neutral(15.9) Warm (7.6)    
 Cool (1.2)       Neutral (7.6) Cool
(2.1)   Cool (28.3)   Cool (0.0)
Value   Light (70.2)    Light
(59.2)    Medium(63.8)  Light (57.9)
Medium(72.3) Medium(50.0)
Medium(24.6)   Medium(27.5) Light (36.6) 
  Medium(28.9)  Light (27.2)   Dark
(35.1) Dark (4.9)       
Dark (13.2)    Dark (0.0)      Dark
(13.0)  Dark (0.5)    Light (14.9)
Chroma   Weak (64.8)    Medium(44.9) 
Medium(62.4)  Weak (76.6)   Weak (45.0)  
Medium(63.3) Medium(21.0)   
Strong (36.2)   Strong (29.9)  Strong
(21.2)  Strong (29.5)  Strong (20.7)
         Strong(13.9)  Weak
(18.8)    Weak (7.6)     Medium(2.1)  
Medium(25.5)  Weak (15.9) Value   High
  Low Low
High  
Medium Medium Contrast (6.3/5.4)
(4.5/5.4) (6.6/5.4)
(4.4/5.4)   (4.9/5.4)
(5.9/5.4) Chroma  Low    
Medium  Medium 
Medium  High  
 Low Contrast    (8.2/10.1)      
(10.3/10.1)      (10.2/10.1)    
(10.4/10.1)     (13.5/10.1)    
(7.8/10.1)
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Characteristics of each palette shown in Table 1
Palette A neutral hues, light value, weak
chroma, high value contrast, low chroma contrast.
Palette B warm hues, light value, moderate
chroma, low value contrast, medium chroma
contrast. Palette C warm hues, middle value,
moderate chroma, low value contrast, medium
chroma contrast.
Palette A
Palette B
Palette c
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Characteristics of each palette shown in Table 1
Palette D neutral hues, light value, weak
chroma, high value contrast, medium chroma
contrast. Palette E neutral hues, middle value,
weak chroma, medium value contrast, high chroma
contrast. Palette F warm hues, middle value,
moderate chroma, medium value contrast, low
chroma contrast.
Palette D
Palette E
Palette F
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Procedure
The subjects were shown slides of the six color
palettes in a darkened auditorium. As each slide
of a color palette was shown, the subjects
completed the questionnaire containing the
descriptor words for that palette. The subjects
also responded to several demographic questions
such as age, gender, and major. Sample
Description The sample was a convenience sample
drawn from universities in England, Korea, Japan,
and the United States. Each group contained males
and females with the proportions of females
slightly higher. Each group had a similar number
of subjects (about 100) with a similar mean age.
The students majored in social science,
architecture, design, business, and psychology
with an almost even distribution among the five
majors. It was important to have both design and
non-design students in the sample.
ltTable 2gt
Culture
number male female age
range mean age
England 115 55
60 20-24 22
Japan 99
60 39 20-24 22
Korea 103 43
69 20-24 22
United States 108 40
68 18-40 26
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Limitation of study
        The palettes developed for this study
were based only on residential interiors. They
were also limited in their range of hues, values,
chromas, and contrast. The subjects selected
were from the student populations of major
universities in each country. The age range
among the samples were not significantly
different, but the age range was not
representative of the population of each
country. Finally, all cultures were not asked to
select their preferred palette. The researchers
used a method to extrapolate preference
responses from the meaning responses for two of
the cultures. Finally, there is always some
apprehension that the meaning of words changes
when translated from one language to another. A
different method of translation has been
developed for future studies.
Statistics
An ANOVA and multiple range tests (Scheffe
method) were used to identify the similarities
and differences among subjects responses in the
four cultures related to color meaning in
interior environments. The cultures were
separately compared to one another to examine
how they differ in expressing the meaning of each
color palette United States and England, United
States and Japan, United States and Korea,
England and Japan, England and Korea, and Japan
and Korea. Additionally, the Eastern
cultures (Korean and Japan) were compared to the
Western cultures (United States and England).
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
 Hypothesis 1 there is a significant
difference among subjects in different cultures
as related to the meaning of interior color
palettes.
Findings
In five of the six palettes, over 60 of the
words showed a significant difference among
cultures. Palette C was the highest (93) with
only one word rated as the same among cultures.
Palette C has warm hues, medium value, medium
chroma, low value contrast, and medium
chroma contrast. It seems that the cultures have
a significantly different meaning for palette
C, that is, the presence of the descriptor
words were significantly different. Palettes B
and F have significant differences in 12 words
(86). Palette A and palette E were slightly
less. Palette D was the only one with less than
half of the world (43) having significant
differences. Palette C had 93 of the words
found to be significantly different among
cultures. This palette has warm hues as do
Palettes B and F, which also had significant
differences in the vast majority of the words.
ltTable 3gt Differences in Color meaning
Palette
of words with SD ratio

Palette A 10/14
71
Palette B 12/14
86
Palette C 13/14
93
Palette D 6/14
43
Palette E 9/14
64
Palette F 12/14 86

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Exhibition
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
 Hypothesis 2 there is a significant
difference between Eastern culture (Korea and
Japan) and Western cultures (United States and
England) in the meaning of color palettes.
Findings
Hypothesis 2 was supported with 50 of all cases
(words and palettes) different for the Eastern
versus Western cultures (see Table 5). However,
when we look closely at the data, the Eastern
cultures of Korea and Japan had 45 of the cases
the same and 20 cases were significantly
different. Between Japan and Korea, there is
similarity in the meaning of color palette. In
the Western cultures of England and the United
States, 22 cases were the same and 42 of the
cases were significantly different. The
similarity between U.S. and England in the
meaning of color palette is not as great as that
between Japan and Korea.
ltTable 4gt Color meaning bet/ Western and Eastern
meaning
Western vs Eastern U.S. vs England
Japan vs Korea
same 51( 22)
13 (22)
27 (45)
neutral 69 (29)
22 (37)
21 (35)
different 120 (50)
25 (42)
12 (20)
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Total 240 (100)
60 (100)
60 (100)
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
 Hypothesis 3 there is a significant
difference among cultures as related to color
palette preference.
Findings
To determine preference, four words
(comfortable, coordinated, inviting, and
sophisticated) had the greatest amount of
presence as identified by the subjects. Palette
A is most preferred by the Eastern culture and
the least preferred by the Western culture.
Palette C is the most preferred by the Western
culture and, while not the least preferred by
the Eastern culture, it falls to number three in
rankings. This hypothesis is supported by the
findings there are preference differences
between Eastern and Western cultures and
differences among the individual cultures. United
States subjects prefer Palette C, English
subjects prefer Palette F, Japanese subjects
prefer Palette A, and Korean subjects prefer
Palette E.
ltTable 5gt Cultural Preference
meaning
U.S England Japan Korea
Western Eastern
Palette A 2.28 (5) 1.76 (6)
2.86 (1) 2.50 (2) 2.01 (6)
2.68 (1)
Palette B 2.46 (4) 2.42 (3)
2.04 (6) 2.29 (5) 2.44 (4)
2.17 (6)
Palette C 3.14 (1) 2.53 (2)
2.46 (2) 2.35 (4) 2.83 (1)
2.40 (3)
Palette D 2.11 (6) 1.92 (5)
2.24 (5) 2.20 (6) 2.01 (5)
2.22 (5)
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Palette E 2.81 (3) 2.39 (4)
2.45 (3) 2.59 (1) 2.59 (3)
2.52 (2)
Palette F 2.91 (2) 2.71 (1)
2.27 (4) 2.43 (3) 2.81 (2)
2.35 (4)
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Discussion
       Palette A, most preferred by Japanese and
least preferred by England is comprised of
neutral hues, light value, weak chroma. Overall,
there is high value contrast as it is simple and
cool in appearance. Palette C was most preferred
by United States and least preferred by Korea.
This palette has warm hues, middle value ,
moderate chroma, low value contrast, and medium
chroma contrast. Many hues are evident in this
palette such as red, blue, green and yellow,
even though the hues are subtle. Overall, the
palette appears colorful. Due to the varied hues
and low range of variation in value and
chroma, it can be suggested that hue is more
important than value or chroma in determining
meaning. Palette E was most preferred by
Koreans. It has neutral hues, middle value, weak
chroma, and medium to high contrast. It shows
obvious red and blue hues, which reflect the
Korean Yin-Yang principle of harmony. Palette F
was most preferred by England. This palette has
warm hues, middle value, moderate chroma, and
medium to low contrast. Overall this palette is
monotone and low in stimulation due to the lack
of contrast. Interestingly, Palette D received a
low preference ranking by all cultures. Further
investigation of this palette may help discover
some relationship between meaning and
preference.
Palette A
Palette E
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Discussion
In summary, this study had three major findings.
First, it was found that cultures do differ in
their preference and meaning of color palettes.
Second, there is a suggested relationship
between preference and meaning. Third, and most
important for interior designers, the preferred
hue temperature, value level, chroma level, and
contrast level was determined for four different
cultures. However, since there were limitations
in the color palettes shown to the subjects,
these palettes and preferences must be further
tested.       
Implications
In future studies, the interiors could reflect
award winning interiors so there is
some assurance that these are well designed and
that the color palettes are appropriate choices
to reflect a certain concept. The next study
conducted by the researchers will include a set
of palettes selected from published
non-residential interiors and fulfill the range
of hues, values, chromas, and contrast. By
conducting this research with a larger sample,
broader representation of age and gender, and
among several cultures and sub-cultures, a
base-line of data could be developed. Also, the
question about the importance of contrast to
color meaning should be further explored.
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Meaning and Preference of Color Palettes Among
Four Cultures
Conclusion
       Color palettes are an appropriate way to
test the meaning and preference of color within
and between cultures. Meaning and preference do
vary by culture. Continued study in this area
can help designers determine which hue, value,
chroma, and contrast levels to use for specific
cultures. As the world grows smaller, designers
will be called upon to design for more diverse
cultures than that from which they come. As
further research refines the method and a larger
data base is developed for various cultures,
interior designers will be able to develop color
palettes that reflect specific meanings for
various cultures, ensuring greater potential for
success when designing for diverse cultures.
DRS Common Ground International Conference
Exhibition