Effects of Color and Size of Motif on Image Perception of Paisley Patterns

Two elements of paisley textile design (color and size of motif) were manipulated to investigate their effects on people's perception. Korean and Caucasian American women were selected to represent Asian and Western countries to compare the differences in image perceptions of paisley patterns between two cultures. The participants were 168 female university students composed of 84 Caucasian Americans and 84 Koreans. The experimental design was a $2{\times}2{\times}7$ factorial design: two levels of perceiver's culture, two levels of motif size, and seven levels of the motif color. The four factors used to account for image perception were an elegance factor, individuality factor, maturity factor, and femininity factor. The results of the present study confirm that image perception can be different according to the color and size of a motif and the perceiver's culture. In the results, Americans perceived the paisley pattern as more preferable than Koreans did. Red background + Orange motif was perceived as the most feminine and Dark blue background + Sky blue motif and Dark gray background + Gray motif was perceived as the most masculine in both cultures. Compared to the big motif, the small motif was perceived as more elegant in both cultures.