THE COLORS OF ANGER, ENVY, FEAR, AND JEALOUSY - A CROSS-CULTURAL-STUDY

Word associations or verbal synesthesia between concepts of color and emotions were studied in Germany, Mexico, Poland, Russia and the Unite d States. With emotion words as the between-subjects variable, 661 und ergraduates indicated on 6-point scales to what extent anger, envy, fe ar, and jealousy reminded them of 12 terms of color. In all nations, t he colors of anger were black and red, fear was black, and jealousy wa s red. Crosscultural differences were (a) Poles connected anger, envy, and jealousy also with purple; (b) Germans associated envy and jealou sy with yellow; and (c) Americans associated envy with black, green, a nd red, but for the Russians it was black, purple, and yellow. The fin dings suggest that cross-modal associations originate in universal hum an experiences and in culture-specific variables, such as language, my thology, and literature.