Approach in green, avoid in red? Examining interindividual variabilities and personal color preferences through continuous measures of specific meaning associations

Empirically based literature suggests that avoidance/approach motivation arising from color–meaning associations assume a key mediational role in the color effect during psychological functioning. Even if several studies investigated color–meaning associations through different methodological approaches, no study investigated specific color–meaning associations (1) through continuous measures (2) for both positive and negative meanings. In addition, color effects are not unequivocal, and interindividual variability issues are still underexplored. The present study is based on the application of visual analog scales to assess continuous measures of specific color–meaning associations related to both negative and positive meanings that could rely on avoidance/approach motivation. The data analyses compared the distribution of the color–meaning association scores rated by participants ( N = 152) on visual analog scales. The results showed strong associations between red color and items that could be related to avoidance motivation. Conversely, green color association scores showed distinct and specific associations that could be related to approach motivation. The results also revealed that blue color could exhibit a similar pattern for some meaning association scores compared with green color, as well as orange compared with red association scores. In addition, the results suggest that color preferences may influence color effects, especially regarding color-related approach motivation. The present study provides new insights about the color effect on psychological functioning and a novel approach to investigate the mediational processes such as avoidance/approach motivation that considers interindividual differences along a continuum.