Purpose: Studies on color preferences for different types of spaces are scarce and show ambiguous results. This paper aims to present data about preferred colors for two work environments: the office and a meeting room, and two residential spaces: the living room and the bedroom. The authors also explore whether people with different personal characteristics of gender, age, education and type of person have different color preferences. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected by means of a questionnaire that was distributed among 1,077 Dutch people. Findings: The color white was most frequently mentioned as the preferred color, by 32-44 per cent of all male respondents and 28-38 per cent of all female respondents, dependent on type of space. The choice “no color preference” rated high as well: by 11-22 per cent of men and 7-22 per cent of women. Preferred colors showed to be significantly different for different types of spaces, males and females, different age groups, level of education and type of person. Research limitations/implications: The research took place in the Netherlands, so only Dutch color preferences have been collected. Due to the many influencing factors, only a selection of the conceptual model could be empirically tested. Practical implications: Information about color preferences for different types of spaces can support clients, end users and (interior) architects to create environments that people like, which may influence peoples’ well-being in a positive way. It is suggested to apply colors in the built environment more like nature shows. Originality/value: Until now, no information was available about color preferences for different types of spaces in connection with different types of personalities.

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Studies on color preferences are dependent on the topic and the relationships with personal characteristics, particularly personality, but these are seldom studied in one population. Therefore a questionnaire was collected from 1095 Dutch people asking for color preferences about different topics and relating them to personal characteristics.
Color preferences regarding different topics show different patterns and significant differences were found between gender, age, education and personality such as being technical, being emotional or being a team player. Also different colors were mentioned when asked for colors that stimulate to be quiet, energetic, able to focus or creative. Probably, due to unconsciousness of contexts, many people had no color preference, a result that in the literature seldom is mentioned.
Blue was the overall favourite color, however most males chose for blue (25 %) while most females had no color preference (18 %). Black was the overall favourite color for clothing, mainly chosen by females (40%), while males primarily chose blue (27%). For building interiors subjects preferred white.
For moods, subjects preferred white for being quiet or being able to focus, red for being energetic and had no color preference for being creative.
It is concluded that color preferences are dependent upon the topic, and personal characteristics. The findings are important for architects, interior designers, fashion designers and product designers to have a basic idea of preferred colors for different objects by different types of people.@en

This research discusses the validity of applying questionnaires in colour research in real life settings.
In the literature the conclusions concerning the influences of colours on human performance and well-being are often conflicting. This can be caused by the artificial setting of the test process. Applying questionnaires could also be a cause. To avoid the disadvantages of an artificial setting, a colour research process was organized in a real life setting. In order to get a better understanding of the validity and possible pitfalls in using questionnaires, the responses to the questionnaires were analysed. During colour research looking for the colour influences on perceived productivity, social cohesion and well-being during meetings, responses to questionnaires were compared with findings from observations of behaviour and additional interviews with the respondents. Discrepancies were found indicating weaknesses of applying questionnaires in colour research. The findings suggest that questionnaires alone are not a fully appropriate tool to establish the colour influences. Triangulation by observations, additional interviews and sampling techniques can improve the validity of measuring the influence of different colours.@en

This paper presents a discursive review of the dimensions pleasure, arousal and dominance that Mehrabian and Russell developed in 1974 to assess environmental perception, experience, and psychological responses. Since then numerous researchers applied these dimensions to assess the experience of the physical environment and its perceived qualities. Although the dimensions appeared to be useful, there is a long-lasting debate going on among environmental psychologists about the interpretation of pleasure, arousal and dominance and its underlying mechanisms. Due to the lack of clarity researchers use different adjectives to describe environmental experiences, which makes any comparison between research findings difficult.
This paper shows that the three dimensions can be linked to the current ABC Model of Attitudes: pleasure, arousal and dominance can be respectively related to affective, cognitive and conative responses , i.e. Affect, Cognition and Behaviour (ABC). In addition, connecting the three dimensions to the triad feeling, thinking and acting, can also help to improve our understanding, interpretation and measurement of pleasure, arousal and dominance. Based on this review, it is proposed to re-introduce the three dimensions and to replace the nowadays often used two dimensional model with pleasure and arousal by a three dimensional model, including dominance as a third dimension, to represent the complete range of human responses.@en

The purpose of this research is to establish the influences of the colours red and blue on perceived well being, social cohesion and productivity in complex real life work conditions during regular meetings.
Methodology: Seven regular government teams held seven regular meetings in a red, blue and reference meeting room. In literature it is often mentioned that red is a warm and blue a cool colour. To be able to test the warmth and coldness effects we have amplified the warm and cold qualities with light colour and colour of the table top desk. We asked employees to complete questionnaires concerning perceived well being, social cohesion and productivity. Fifty two subjects completed three questionnaires, at the start, the end and two or three days after the meeting. Data were analysed with SPSS 16.
Our findings didn’t show any effects of the red and blue environment on perceived well being, social cohesion and productivity. We assume the processes in real life work situations are too complex to measure influences. Practical implications are that statements frequently mentioned in literature concerning influences of red and blue might be not valid in real life meeting settings. New ways of testing the impact of colours should be reconsidered. Because lab situations are too simplified and artificial, we suggest testing influences of colour in an isolated setting in relation to art.
The originality of this research concerns testing colour influences in complex real life work settings like meetings.@en