Effects of Room Hue on Ratings of Self, Other, and Environment

Abstract

51 subjects were exposed to one of three experimental rooms which were decorated using either warm (yellow, orange, red), neutral (white), or cool (blue, green) hues. A 25-item semantic differential and a questionnaire requesting three size estimates, a temperature estimate, and two room and color preference ratings were administered. The semantic differential was used to rate the room, the self, and the experimenter after the subjects had been exposed to one of the rooms. Analyses of variance produced significant room-hue effects for eight of the scales. The neutral room was like the cool room, and both were different from the warm room in terms of smooth, like, and light, whereas, the neutral room was like the warm room and different from the cool room on adequate, pleasant, and good. Most of the expected effects of room hue were not observed. However, across rooms self and experimenter were rated mote favorably than the room on all except those scales which were physical descriptors.