Color Connotations among Caucasian Seventh Graders and College Students

Abstract

Seventh grade and college students rated 10 common color names on the semantic differential. Analysis of the ratings by the two groups indicated a high degree of similarity in the affective meanings of the color names along the Evaluation (E), Potency (P), and Activity (A) dimensions, leading to the conclusion that the distinctive affective meanings of color names are learned, for the most part, prior to age 13. In the seventh-grade group the A scores shared considerable common variance with the E scores suggesting that the A dimension had not yet emerged as an independent meaning factor. The results of an analysis of color names often used to designate racial groups (e.g., white, black) were related to the findings of other studies concerned with the effects of racial “color coding” upon racial attitudes.