Keywords

1 Introduction

The strong association between a display element and its intended meaning can be considered a population stereotype [1]. Population stereotypes are important to design because they can be used to predict how users would interact with a product or system. Early research on population stereotypes focused on participants’ natural response tendencies for display-control configurations, such as turning a knob clockwise to increase the value of a display or moving the location of a switch to the up position to turn on a light in a room [2, 3]. Additionally, there was also interest in what meanings individuals associate with certain colors [4]. Bergum and Bergum’s [2] 1981 study found that more than 96% of American participants surveyed showed strong associations for the meaning of “go” with the color green, “stop” with the color red, and “cold” with the color of blue. In contrast, the colors of orange and purple were not strongly associated with any meaning. However, color associations found with American participants may not be to the same as those obtained with participants from other countries. Courtney’s [4] 1986 study found that less than 65% of the Chinese respondents surveyed associated specific meanings to colors. In fact, only 44.7% of his participants associated “go” with the color green, 48.5% associated “stop” with the color red, and 5.9% associated “cold” with the color of blue. Toriizuka et al. [6] found that Japanese participants related the colors of red and blue to opposing meanings such as dangerous (reddish hues) vs. safe (blueish hues). The difference observed between cultures in the type and degree of color-to-meaning associations has important implications for the use of color coding in design.

Even within an ethnic culture, the degree of association of a meaning with a color can vary depending on the experiences of participants. In 2001, Chan and Courtney [5] conducted a study to examine color associations for Chinese participants from Hong Kong. In comparison to the Chinese participants from the Yunnan Province of China surveyed in Courtney’s previous [4] study, Chan and Courtney found that “go” was more strongly with the color green (62.6%), “stop” with the color red (66.4%), and “cold” with the color of blue (22.5%). Although the level of association between the colors and meaning were higher for participants from Hong Kong compared to Yunnan, the level of association of meaning to color for the Chinese participants were not as strong as those obtained by American participants [2]. The differences in degree of associations found between these three groups of participants points to the need to survey participants from different cultures and locations to determine whether certain color associations apply to a targeted user group.

The present study surveys over 300 participants from three different countries (USA, UK, and India) to capture population stereotypes for common colors. The data presented in this paper is a subset of the larger study that examined population stereotypes for verbal and pictorial displays, and only focuses on population stereotypes for colors.

2 Method

Participants.

All participants were adults, 18 years of age or older, and recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). Participants had to meet the requirements of having an approval rating of 95% or above in Mturk and being a resident of USA, UK, or India. Over 300 responses were collected, with 126 respondents (64 female, 62 male) from the USA, 127 (24 female, 103 male) from India, and 65 (34 female, 30 male, 1 declined to state) from the UK.

Procedure.

The online survey was created using Qualtrics and administered to participants through Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). Mturk workers who met the study’s qualifications were able to find the survey on a list of HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) that were available to them as potential participants. These workers became actual participants once they accepted the task and clicked on the link to take our survey. Data collection started once participants accessed the survey through Qualtrics. The first page of the survey was a consent form. Participants acknowledged that they were voluntarily participating in the survey by clicking on a link, which started the survey questions.

As noted earlier, the data presented in this paper is part of a larger study. Participants were presented with 96 questions in randomized order prior to collecting demographic information. All questions had to be answered to complete the survey, but a “decline to answer” option was provided for all questions so that participants could refuse to answer any question and still participate in the study. For the color association questions, participants were asked to answer the questions by selecting the meaning they associated with a specific color from a list of pre-defined responses. The six colors (red, green, blue, yellow, orange, and purple) used in the survey were the ones that were used in Bergum and Bergum’s [2] 1981 study. The response alternatives provided to participants were also generated from the Bergum and Bergum [2] study; however, we added an option of explicitly indicating that “I don’t associate the color with any of the [meanings] above” (see Fig. 1). Participants were able to select multiple responses to the questions.

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Example survey question for the color red. Participants were asked to select all response options that they associated with the color red. (Color figure online)

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Once the participants completed all the survey questions, they were asked to provide demographic information. The very last question of the survey provided the participants with a verification code to claim their payment of $0.75 through Mturk for completing the survey.

3 Results and Discussion

Responses to each of the six colors were summarized separately by country and gender. The percentage of responses for each group was reported due to unequal number of participants obtained from different countries and a much larger number of male participants compared to female participants from India. Bergum and Bergum [2] indicated that, for applied research, a response rate of 85% or higher could serve as a criterion for a population stereotype. However, they also noted that stereotypes with lower levels of association (i.e., 66%) could still be useful. Courtney [5] noted that none of the associations in his study reached the 85% level, but some that reached the 60% association rate reached statistical significance. For this paper, we use an intermediate criterion of 75%. However, we leave it to the reader to determine what level of agreement is appropriate for their design purposes.

Red.

As shown in Table 1, the top three associations for the color red were the meanings of “Danger”, “Stop”, and “Hot” for participants in all three countries. In terms of reaching the 75% criterion (see Fig. 2), Danger was associated with red for all participants in the present study. Stop was associated with red for all participants, except males from India. Hot was associated with red above the 75% level for female participants from the USA, and both male and female participants from the UK. In other words, UK participants showed the strongest associations for the meanings of “Danger”, “Stop”, and “Hot” with red, and participants from India showed the weakest associations of these concepts with red. In comparison to the prior studies of Bergum and Bergum [2], Courtney [4], and Chan and Courtney [5], the finding of the color red being strongly associated with “Stop” and “Danger” was robust.

Table 1. Top 4 responses for associations with the color red obtained in prior studies, and in the present study from participants in the USA, UK, and India.
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Fig. 2.
figure 2

Top meanings associated with the color red obtained in the present study by location (USA, India, and UK) and gender (male vs. female). (Color figure online)

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Orange.

As shown in Table 2, the top association for the color orange was the meaning of “Caution” for participants in all three countries of the present study. However, “Caution”, did not reach the 75% criterion for any group of participants. USA and UK participants showed the strongest association of the color orange with “Caution” (58%–71%). The second highest association, “Danger,” yielded less than 31% of responses. The finding of caution being somewhat associated with orange is different from that of Bergum and Bergum [2], Courtney [4], and Chan and Courtney [5] who all found little or no association of “Caution” with the color of orange.

Table 2. Top 4 responses for associations with the color orange obtained in prior studies, and in the present study from participants in the USA, UK, and India.
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Yellow.

As shown in Table 3, “Caution” was the top association for the color yellow for participants from all three countries examined in the present study. For USA participants, the response level exceeded the 75% criterion. The level of association was lower for participants from the UK (52–68%) and India (38–42%). Radiation was the second highest association for participants from India and UK and the third highest association for participants from the USA. However, the level of association was not strong (<40%), see Fig. 3. The finding of yellow being somewhat associated with “Caution” was consistent with prior research studies [2, 4, 5], where “Caution” was also found to be the top or second highest meaning to be associated with the color yellow.

Table 3. Top 4 responses for associations with the color yellow obtained in prior studies, and in the present study from participants in the USA, UK, and India.
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Fig. 3.
figure 3

Top meanings associated with the color yellow obtained in the present study by location (USA, India, and UK) and gender (male vs. female). (Color figure online)

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Green.

As shown in Table 4, the top three associations for the color green were the meanings of “Go”, “Safe”, and “On” for participants in all three countries examined in the present study and replicates prior research [2, 4, 5]. In terms of reaching the 75% criterion, “Go” was associated with green for both male and female participants from the USA and UK, see Fig. 4. Only “Safe” was highly associated for both male and female participants from the UK. For UK males, “On” was associated strongly with green at 77.4%.

Table 4. Top 4 responses for associations with the color green obtained in prior studies, and in the present study from participants in the USA, UK, and India.
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Fig. 4.
figure 4

Top meanings associated with the color green obtained in the present study by location (USA, India, and UK) and gender (male vs. female). (Color figure online)

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Blue.

As shown in Table 5, the top two associations for blue were the meanings of “Cold” and “Safe” by participants from all three countries in the current study. “Cold” was also the top association with Blue found by Bergum and Bergum [2] and Chan and Courtney [5]. “Safe” was the second highest association with blue found by Courtney [4]. In terms of reaching the 75% criterion, “Cold” was associated with blue for both male and female participants from the USA and UK. “Safe” did not come close to the 75% criterion with association rates of less than 41%, see Fig. 5.

Table 5. Top 4 responses for associations with the color blue obtained in prior studies, and in the present study from participants in the USA, UK, and India.
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Fig. 5.
figure 5

Top meanings associated with the color blue obtained in the present study location (USA, India, and UK) and gender (male vs. female). (Color figure online)

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Purple.

There was no stereotypic response for the color purple among participants from all three countries surveyed in this study. Participants from the USA, India and UK were consistent in indicating that they do not associate the color purple with any of the meanings provided. This finding is consistent with prior research [2, 4, 5] in Table 6.

Table 6. Top 4 responses for associations with the color purple obtained in prior studies, and in the present study from participants in the USA, UK, and India.
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4 Conclusions

Using the 75% criterion, we found that only the color red yielded strong association with the meaning of “Danger” across participants from all three countries surveyed for the present study. The color association of red with “Stop” was the second strongest association. Both participants from the USA and UK indicated strong associations, while participants from India almost met the 75% criterion. In general, participants surveyed from the USA and UK showed stronger associations of meaning with color, compared to participants from India. For example, both USA and UK participants strongly associated the color green with “Go” and blue with “Cold”. Participants from the UK also strongly associated the color red with “Stop” and green with “Safe”, while USA participants strongly associated yellow with “Caution”. Participants from India showed only two associations of color to meaning above the 70% level (red with “Danger” and “Stop”) and 2 at the response rate of 60% or higher (green with “Go” and “Safe”). The finding of lower rates of color-to-meaning associations for participants from India in comparison with US participants is consistent to what Courtney [4] and Chan and Courtney [5] found for Chinese participants in comparison to US participants.

The robust association of red with “Danger” is one that designers can use with confidence when using color to convey warnings for products. Care should be taken when using other colors to convey meaning as the degree of association may not be strong across cultures. Our findings indicate that the color of purple should be avoided when conveying meaning for products aimed at general users, as it was not strongly associated to any meaning examined in the present study.

The present study also found some results that were consistent with the prior studies of Bergum and Burgum [2], Courtney [4], and Chan and Courtney [5], indicating the robustness of color-to-meaning associations over time. However, there were disparities that could reflect differences in experiences between cultures or changes over time. If colors are used in design to convey specific meanings, it is recommended that the designers verify the degree of the color-to-meaning association with participants from the targeted user group(s). In addition, designers need to pay extra care when using colors to convey meaning for products that are designed for international markets.