Effect on clothing color preference of seasonal variations in physiology and psychology

계절에 따른 생리와 심리의 변화가 의복색 선호에 미치는 영향

  • Kim Sook-Hee (Dept. of Apparel & Textile Design, Konkuk University) ;
  • Lee Won-Ja (Dept. of Apparel & Textile Design, Konkuk University)
  • 김숙희 (건국대학교 의상텍스타일학부) ;
  • 이원자 (건국대학교 의상텍스타일학부)
  • Published : 2005.12.01

Abstract

The experiment aimed at knowing the effect of physiology and psychology according to season on color preference. Two tests, one of the spring and the other of the autumn was conducted. Seventy subjects with normal color vision served as subjects. The subjects entered a bioclimatic chamber controlled at a temperature of $25\pm1^{\circ}C$, a relative humidity of $50\pm5\%$ and a light of 1000 1x. The subjects wearing white shirts and trousers sat quietly on a sofa for one our. Sensation from warm to cool colors might be possibly different individually Therefore, a subject asked to array 41 randomly placed cloth colors from very warm to very cool colors during rest quietly for one our. All subjects arrayed these cloth colors in the order from red through yellow and green to blue, which had the reproducibility. After rest, they were instructed to choose a single one out of 41 cloth colors, preferred by themselves, every 10min during one our 0-ring test were measured to red, yellow, white, blue, black, favorite color, and dislike color. Most subjects preferred warmer color in April than in December. Tympanic temperature was significantly lower in December than in April. Finger presser was significantly higher in like color than in dislike color but it was no significant differences between spring and autumn. The preferring the warm color in April toward summer when basal metabolic rate is decreased than in December toward winter when it is increased can explain that physiology reaction by load error between actual core temperature and set-point induces psychological reaction to pursue visual alliesthesia. Our present experiment revealed that the preferred color could be determined by the relationship between the internal temperature and its set point according to season. It should be emphasized that the alliesthesia was observed also in the realm of visual system.

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