Color

Kwon and colleagues evaluated the effects of mental state on color combination preferences.  They found that “individuals who have experienced social exclusion (isolation) display a heightened preference for analogous color combinations, as opposed to complementary ones, compared to those who have not experienced social exclusion. Our research posits that this preference arises from the feeling of conflict induced by social exclusion, leading individuals to choose products and environments with analogous colors as a coping mechanism to alleviate this feeling of conflict. . . .

Strzalkowski, and Lewicka study how social forces influence color preferences.  They report that “Pastelosis is a phenomenon that originated in Poland in the 1990s as a reaction to the gray color of modernist settlements that dominated communist urban spaces. This is manifested in changing the building façades through the introduction of pastel colors and their compositions. Critics of pastelosis attribute its popularity to the low level of architectural taste among the Polish population.