What Color is that Smell? Cross-Cultural Color-Odor Associations

نویسندگان

  • Carmel A. Levitan
  • Jiana Ren
  • Andy Woods
  • Sanne Boesveldt
  • Jason Chan
  • Kirsten McKenzie
  • Michael Dodson
  • Jai Levin
  • Xiang Ru Leong
  • Jasper van den Bosch
چکیده

People can consistently match to odors to colors, and within a culture, there are similarities in color-odor associations. These associations are forms of crossmodal correspondences. Recently, there has been discussion about the extent to which these correspondences arise for structural reasons (e.g., an inherent mapping between color and odor), statistical reasons (e.g., covariance in experience), and/or semantically-mediated reasons (e.g., stemming from language). The present study probed this question by testing color-odor correspondences in 6 different cultural groups (Dutch, Dutch residing-Chinese, German, Malay, Malaysian-Chinese, and US residents), using the same set of 14 odors and asking participants to make congruent and incongruent color choices for each odor. We found consistent patterns in color choices for each odor within each culture, and variation in the patterns of color-odor associations across cultures. Thus culture plays a role in color-odor crossmodal associations, which likely arise, at least in part, through experience.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Odor–color associations differ with verbal descriptors for odors: A comparison of three linguistically diverse groups

People appear to have systematic associations between odors and colors. Previous research has emphasized the perceptual nature of these associations, but little attention has been paid to what role language might play. It is possible odor-color associations arise through a process of labeling; that is, participants select a descriptor for an odor and then choose a color accordingly (e.g., banan...

متن کامل

Cross-Cultural Color-Odor Associations

Colors and odors are associated; for instance, people typically match the smell of strawberries to the color pink or red. These associations are forms of crossmodal correspondences. Recently, there has been discussion about the extent to which these correspondences arise for structural reasons (i.e., an inherent mapping between color and odor), statistical reasons (i.e., covariance in experienc...

متن کامل

Hot and Cold Smells: Odor-Temperature Associations across Cultures

It is often assumed odors are associated with hot and cold temperature, since odor processing may trigger thermal sensations, such as coolness in the case of mint. It is unknown, however, whether people make consistent temperature associations for a variety of everyday odors, and, if so, what determines them. Previous work investigating the bases of cross-modal associations suggests a number of...

متن کامل

Cross-modal associations between odors and colors.

In the present study, we investigated the nature of any cross-modal associations between colors and odors. In Experiment 1, we show that participants consistently match certain odors to specific colors when asked to explicitly select from among different colors the one that best matched a given odor. In Experiment 2, we investigated the robustness of these cross-modal associations using a cross...

متن کامل

Color of scents: chromatic stimuli modulate odor responses in the human brain.

Color has a profound effect on the perception of odors. For example, strawberry-flavored drinks smell more pleasant when colored red than green and descriptions of the "nose" of a wine are dramatically influenced by its color. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate a neurophysiological correlate of these cross-modal visual influences on olfactory perception. Subjects were s...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2014