Effects of human figure type on children's use of colour to depict sadness and happiness

Abstract

This study was designed to assess the impact of drawing topic on children's colour use when drawing affectively salient topics. 82 children (42 boys, 40 girls) aged between 6 year 1 month and 8 year 11month (X = 7 year, 6 month) participated in counterbalanced colour preference rating and drawing sessions. In line with past research, results indicated that children selected colours in relation to their colour preferences and the emotional character of the figure, and they systematically used specific colours when depicting sad figures more cohesively than when depicting happy figures. The use of specific colours varied by topic type. Colour choice was not wholly determined by realism which that the precise topic needs to be accounted for when claims are made about how children feel about the topics they draw on the basis of colour use.

The authors would like to thank the teachers and pupils who took part in this research.