情绪的色彩：用不同的颜色来描述幸福与抑郁

LiveScience撰稿人

斯蒂芬妮·帕帕斯（Stephanie Pappas）

发表于2010年2月8日

转载自：http://article.yeeyan.org/view/125036/95365

色环中心的文字：

我们感受到的颜色

一项新的研究发现，人们倾向于为自己不同的情绪挑选不同的颜色来描述，但是，不管处于什么情绪，他们总是挑选其他的颜色作为自己最喜欢的颜色。研究结果并不适用与国外，但是在测试中表现出这样的趋势。其他的情绪，状态和颜色我们还没有进行试验。

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情绪的色彩:用不同的颜色来描述幸福与抑郁

 

今天你的心情是灰色的（gray mood）吗？ 还是惶恐不安（blue funk）？ 也许你发怒到火冒三丈（seeing red），因为你正妒火中烧（green with jealousy）。根据最新的研究发现，我们用来形容的情绪的颜色，也许比你认为的有更多的作用。

 

这项研究发现，伴有抑郁或焦虑状态的人更容易把他们的情绪与灰色联系在一起，而幸福的人更喜欢黄色。研究的结果，在今天刊发的英国医学委员会 (BMC)的医学研究方法杂志（BMC Medical Research Methodology）上有详细的论述，可以帮助医生判断小孩以及其他语言沟通有障碍的病人的情绪。

 

“这是一种不用语言而能够判断焦虑和抑郁的方法，”论文的共同作者,南曼彻斯特大学医院的肠胃病专家彼得·霍维尔Peter Whorwell告诉生活科学（LiveScience）。 “很有意思的是，实际上这可能是一个比提问更好的捕捉病人的情绪的办法。”

 

颜色通常用来比喻情绪，但没有人系统地研究色彩与情绪的联系，Whorwell表示。调查，他和他的同事们挑选八种颜色-- 红，橙，绿，紫，蓝，黄，粉红和棕色-- 然后把它们分成4个深浅色单元。 然后他们增加了白色，黑色和四个灰色单元达到共计38个色彩选项。 在小组讨论之后，研究人员决定用轮环的形式来呈现这些颜色。

 

接下来，他们招募了105个健康的成年人，110个成年焦虑症患者和108个成年抑郁症患者，然后寄给他们打印出来的色环（color wheel）。要求每个人挑选出他们最喜欢的颜色，以及最吸引他们的颜色。 最后，要求他们挑选出最符合自己过去几个月的日常情绪的颜色。另一组是204名健康志愿者，要求他们把每一种颜色分为积极的，消极的或中性的。

 

无论处于抑郁，焦虑或健康状态，人们都喜欢蓝色和黄色。 色环上的28号蓝色是健康人群最喜欢的颜色，而焦虑和抑郁的人群则更喜欢27号蓝色（比28号蓝色稍微深一点）。同时，14号黄色作为最具吸引力的颜色被跳出来。

 

但是，当我们开始讨论情绪，小组内开始产生分歧。 只有39%的健康人群选择单一一种颜色来代表自己的心情。 在这些人当中，14号黄色是最多人的选择，大概得到了20%的投票。同时，大概有30%的焦虑人群选择了某一种灰色，超过一半的抑郁人群也是如此。相比之下，健康志愿者只有10%用灰色调来描述他们的情绪。

 

研究还发现了，当把一种心情指定给一种颜色，饱和度很重要。

 

“浅蓝色（light blue）与情绪不佳没有联系，但深蓝色（ dark blue）就有，”Whorwell表示。 “颜色的色调比颜色本身更重要。”

 

Whorwell正在对肠道易激综合征患者进行色环测试。他希望颜色的选择可以显示出病人的态度，并预测他们将如何对催眠之类的治疗过程有何反应。Whorewell说，因为人们会为这类肠胃病症状感到尴尬，有时候用非口头的方式获取信息比交谈更好。 他补充说，通过进一步的研究表明，色环也许在从儿科到外科手术领域都能应用。

 

 Whorwell说，“现在我们有了一项新工具”。 “我们要不断尝试来发现如何更好的应用这个工具。”

原文：

Are you in a gray mood today? How about a blue funk? Maybe you're seeing red, because you're green with jealousy. The colors we use to describe emotions may be more useful than you think, according to new research.

The study found that people with depression or anxiety were more likely to associate their mood with the color gray, while happier people preferred yellow. The results, which are detailed today in the journal BMC Medical Research Methodology, could help doctors gauge the moods of children and other patients who have trouble communicating verbally.

"This is a way of measuring anxiety and depression which gets away from the use of language," study co-author and gastroenterologist Peter Whorwell of University Hospital South Manchester told LiveScience. "What is very interesting is that this might actually be a better way of capturing the patient's mood than questions."

Colors are often used as metaphors for moods, but no one had systematically researched color associations, Whorwell said. To investigate, he and his colleagues picked eight colors — red, orange, green, purple, blue, yellow, pink and brown — and split each into four shades. They then added white, black and four shades of gray for a total of 38 options. After meeting with focus groups, the researchers decided to display the colors in the form of a wheel.

Next, they recruited 105 healthy adults, 110 anxious adults and 108 depressed adults and mailed them printouts of the color wheel. Each person was asked to pick their favorite color, as well as the color they were most "drawn to." Finally, they were asked to pick a color that described their day-to-day mood over the last several months. Another group of 204 healthy volunteers classified each color as positive, negative or neutral.

Whether depressed, anxious or healthy, people liked blue and yellow. Blue 28 on the color wheel was the most popular favorite color among healthy people, while Blue 27 (which is a little darker than 28) got first place among people with anxiety and depression. Meanwhile, Yellow 14 was picked as the color most likely to catch the eye.

But when it came to mood, the groups diverged. Only 39 percent of healthy people associated their mood with a color at all. Of those who did, Yellow 14 was the most popular choice, with about 20 percent of the votes. Meanwhile, about 30 percent of people with anxiety picked a shade of gray, as did more than half of depressed volunteers. In comparison, healthy volunteers described their mood with a shade of gray only about 10 percent of the time.

The researchers also found that when assigning a mood to colors, saturation matters.

"A light blue is not associated with a poor mood, but a dark blue is," Whorwell said. "The shade of color is more important than the color itself."

Whorwell is now testing the wheel on patients with irritable bowel syndrome. He's hoping that color choices can reveal patients' attitudes and predict how well they will respond to treatments like hypnosis. Because people are embarrassed by gastroenterogical symptoms, Whorewell said, non-verbal methods of getting information are sometimes preferable to conversation. And, he said, with additional research, the wheel could be used in medical fields from pediatrics to surgery.

"You've got an instrument now," Whorwell said. "Now people have to play with it and find out the applications."

原文论文地址：http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/10/12