Harmony between Colors and Fragrances: Effect on Dimensions of Impressions

Abstract

Abstract:The objective of this study is to extract dimensions in impressions of colors and fragrances, and to examine their harmonious relationship. Experiment A: One hundred subjects were requested to describe their impressions of eight fragrances, and to select harmonious/disharmonious colors from color charts. Experiment B: One hundred subjects described their impression of 18 colors and each color's degree of harmonization with each of the eight fragrances. In addition, we combined the results of Experiment A and Experiment B, and conducted several analyses. The factor analysis revealed the MILD factor and CLEAR factor for the dimensions of each fragrance, color, and combination of color and fragrance. The multiple regression analysis revealed the following tendency: the smaller the distance between colors and fragrances on the dimensions, the greater is the rise in harmony; conversely, the greater the distance, the greater is the disharmony.

Correspondence between colour and odour for women in pre‐menopause and post‐menopause

“…However, comparison of the factor scores of colour impressions in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women gave results that differed from those of previous studies of factor scores categorized by three factors, which corresponded to the three colour attributes: hue, brightness, and chroma, respectively . Previous studies found that Clear factor was related to chroma, including vivid colours and white, and Mild factor was related to brightness, including bright and warm colours and less bright and cold colours, while our results showed no clear and straightforward relationship with hue, brightness or chroma. Regarding odor impressions, Clear factor in premenopausal women included “like‐dislike” and “pleasant‐unpleasant,” and these women might have found the domestic gas, sweaty socks and roasted garlic odors to be more disliked or unpleasant odors, while postmenopausal women categorized these types of odor in Gentle factor, which included “like‐dislike” and “pleasant‐unpleasant,” and had more moderate impressions.…”

“…Although previous studies of these cognitive features did not include comparative examinations between different groups of participants, the results of our examinations suggest that humans may generally have similar impressions of colours and odors. In particular, colour and odor impressions seem to be commonly categorized by two (or possibly three) main factors: one factor named Mild (including “warm‐cool,” “soft‐hard,” “feminine‐masculine,” and “sweet‐non sweet”) and another factor named Clear (including “clear‐muddy” and “bright‐dark”), observed in previous studies . The colour and odor impressions of women in menopause generally showed these same patterns of categorization, although the impressions were found here to include one more factor, designated as Shallow factor, which included “shallow‐deep” and “ordinary‐characteristic” in premenopausal participants, and also one more factor designated as Gentle factor, which included “gentle‐harsh,”, “like‐dislike,” and “pleasant‐unpleasant” in addition to the characteristics of Shallow factor, in postmenopausal participants.…”

“…First, an examiner showed a participant one of the 18 colour cards from the PCCS colour chart, and the participant evaluated her impressions of the colour on the Surface screen by pressing a button of the keypad. To express their impressions, participants were presented with 12 adjective word pairs: “warm‐cool,” “shallow‐deep,” “ordinary‐characteristic,” “soft‐hard,” “clear‐muddy,” “gentle‐harsh,” “simple‐complicated,” “sweet‐non sweet,” “bright‐dark,” “like‐dislike,” “feminine‐masculine,” and “pleasant‐unpleasant,” based on previous studies of colour and odor classification by words . Each pair appeared randomly on the screen with a 5‐point scale based on the Semantic Differential (SD) method.…”

“…The influences of various factors such as physiological changes of female hormones on these correspondences is also unknown. To explore the possibility that female hormones might affect perception and cognition in vision and olfactory sensing, here we experimentally examined the correspondence between colour and odor in women in menopause, based on methods used in previous studies, 9,10 and considering the physiological transition between the premenopausal and postmenopausal phases. We hypothesized that menopause affected the impressions of colour and odor, and the correspondence between them.…”

“…Some studies about colour‐odor cross‐modal associations show that humans relate odors to specific colours, and stronger intensity of odor is more often associated with darker colours than lighter colours . Recent studies have also provided more systematic data about cross‐modal correspondences between colour and odor by examining numerous odor types, such as spices and aromatic oils, and led to creation of a colour‐odor model showing how people relate specific odors and colours . However, human visual and olfactory perception and cognition are often affected and altered by physiological changes, age or sex, and how these factors influence colour‐odor cross‐modal correspondence has remained unclear.…”