Week 1: Color, Happiness, and Wall Space

Hey!

My name is Samrit and I’m a senior at BISV. Thanks for checking out my senior research project blog. You can find my project abstract here.

I’ve begun the process of investigating the relationship between color and emotion, administering an online survey to more than 50 respondents and reading a study that explores the same topic.

Researchers Kaya and Epps at the University of Georgia found the most ‘positive’ emotional reactions associated with the five principle hues (red, yellow, green, blue and purple). In particular, they found that yellow and green elicited the greatest percentage of positive feelings from study participants. Relaxation, happiness, and comfort were common responses to the principle hues. On the other hand, achromatic hues like grey and black caused a large majority of participants to feel depression, anxiety, and fear. This study tested only college students; how would high school students at BISV react to the same colors?

Because I was interested primarily in which colors were most likely to elicit happiness among BISV students, I figured that a short survey would provide me with a preliminary answer. Based on a sample size of 53 respondents, I found that blue, defined under the Munsell system as 10B 6/10, was most often cited as the color which elicited the most happiness when given the choice between all the principle and achromatic hues. Yellow (7.5Y 8/10) and green (2.5G 5/10) tied for second place. My results confirmed the findings of Kaya and Epps: principle hues are most likely to elicit happiness.

After completing an analysis of the survey, I dove right into brainstorming my mural design. By this point, I was certain that I wanted to work with multicolored string as the medium for my project. This would require four boards to mount the string onto before hanging it on the wall. I figured that the best way to get started with my mural was to measure the wall I was to create it on. It turned out that the wall was the perfect size! However, I noticed a potential obstacle to mounting the mural; a fire alarm was right near the center of the wall. I will need to find a solution to that issue in the coming weeks.

I am fairly satisfied with the work I have accomplished in the first week; I am particularly happy to see that BISV students love bright colors as much as I do! See you all next week.