Perceptual and emotional effects of light and color in a simulated retail space

Abstract

This article aims to address two aspects of lighting often treated intuitively by designers in charge of creating retail atmospheres, that is, the impact of color and light distribution, as design variables. The study comprised a controlled experiment with a repeated measure design with three directions of lighting (front, overhead, and wallwasher), as the within‐subject factor and four color combinations of the walls (yellow‐blue, magenta, gray, and green‐magenta), as the between‐group variable. The perceptual (visually) and emotional responses of 184 participants revealed the interplay between light and color on these psychological outcomes. Specifically, the results showed that the overhead direction of lighting improves the appearance of the less favored color conditions, either in terms of lack of visual complexity (monochromatic) or color itself (gray). In turn, the wallwasher lighting emphasized these attributes, differing according to visual or emotional aspects. In retailing, emotional dimensions such as activation and evaluation are desired, and they were confirmed across all the lighting and color conditions of this study. The results provide designers with certain perceptual cues regarding colors and their lighting mode to create desirable impressions and affect in retail spaces.

Color‐emotion associations in interiors

“…Empirical evidence indicates that emotional responses to the principal hues such as green, blue, and red includes positive emotional responses, followed by intermediate hues such as yellow‐red, and blue‐green and chromatic colors such as white and black . On the other hand, complementary colors, which are opposite to each other in the color wheel, such as yellow and purple, provide a psychological balance of warmth and coolness …”

“…Environments that enclose people should be carefully and systematically analyzed in association with color use in order to design environments that can reduce negative outcomes, such as stress or strain, and enhance positive feelings such as happiness, so people eventually prefer, like, and enjoy the spaces they are in. By selecting the proper color of the space, certain visual and emotional effects might be achieved …”

“…By selecting the proper color of the space, certain visual and emotional effects might be achieved. 11 2 | COLOR AND EMOTION People's mood and emotions are influenced by color. Color emotions can be described as emotional feelings evoked by a single color or color combinations and expressed with semantic words.…”

“…13 On the other hand, complementary colors, which are opposite to each other in the color wheel, such as yellow and purple, provide a psychological balance of warmth and coolness. 11 Color can transmit meaning from emotional or cognitive messages. Some reactions to color are inborn, intuitive, and universal to everyone, while others lay in the body of learned associations that are dependent both on the realities known to everyone and to meanings learned within a particular society in a particular time and place.…”

Evaluation of the perception of visual comfort, reading ability, color appearance, and global preference with respect to the CCT and the illuminance, of a university audience

“…There are different studies related to preferential lighting in different applications, such as in offices [4]. Regardless of the activity that is carried out, the preference for a CCT varies according to geographical ancestry [7], which gives importance to the present work, because there are few studies related to the psychological response due to lighting in the South American region compared to Europe [8,9]. In this sense, to investigate visual comfort, reading ability, color appearance, and the global preference of students and/or researchers, a methodology involving a light booth and surveys has been applied.…”