Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, 2015.
Research on how color affects psychological functioning has burgeoned in recent years. The majority of studies in the domain of color psychology have focused on hue or lightness, while paying little attention to chroma. The present research sought to address this oversight in the literature by investigating the degree to which chroma influences person perception, specifically with regard to the Big Five personality traits. Drawing from Conceptual Metaphor Theory, I predicted that perceiving literal colorfulness (i.e., chroma) would influence perceptions of figurative colorfulness (i.e., extraversion, openness). In Experiment 1, participants perceived foreign words printed in high-chroma text to have a meaning associated with extraversion and openness, relative to agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. In Experiment 2, participants rated individuals surrounded by high-chroma colors as more extraverted and open than individuals surrounded by low-chroma colors. Experiment 3 replicated these effects while manipulating chroma on targets' clothing. Study 4 examined the relationship between the Big Five traits and preferences for high and low-chroma colors. Extraverts reported liking high-chroma colors more than introverts, and higher openness was associated with stronger liking of low-chroma colors. Study 5 investigated whether the amount of chroma in participants' clothing was related to their levels of extraversion and openness; no relationship was observed. Implications for integrating chroma as a focal variable in color research are discussed.
