The Impact of Anxious and Calm Emotional States on Color Usage in Pre-drawn Mandalas

摘要

The purpose of this single-subject experiment was to test whether a link exists between emotional state and color usage in a common art therapy technique. The researchers hypothesized that when coloring a pre-drawn mandala, participants would choose warm colors when they were anxious and cool colors when they were calm. The non-random sample consisted of 64 undergraduate and graduate students who were assigned to one of three evenly distributed groups. For each group, a different mood (anxious, calm, or neutral) was induced through a brief writing exercise. The researchers calculated the percentage of the total area of each mandala that was colored with warm colors and compared the results for each group. The researchers found no statistical differences in the color choices of participants who were feeling anxious, calm, or neutral when coloring a pre-drawn mandala. Color usage may have more to do with color preferences and memories that are associated with colors than current emotional state.