Effects of White versus Coloured.xlsx

Lighting is one of the important factors affecting the emotion of people in architecture, and the study of the psychological needs of architectural lighting may provide more rational guidelines for architectural design. There are many previous studies on the emotion of lighting in architecture, but most of them use the method of measured absolute emotional values, lacking consideration of the dynamics of emotions. In this study, we assess the relative emotional effects of coloured light on participants by comparing their emotional responses to white and coloured light. Participants (n = 32) were divided into three groups and subjected to three scenes with different colour combinations. Participants self-reported emotional values (in terms of pleasure, arousal, dominance, and comfort) after being exposed to light. The results of the emotion data analysis showed that the emotion of participants was significantly negatively affected from white to coloured light, especially for the male subgroup. No effect on comfort was observed between white and coloured light. Our study shows that using relative emotion assessment methods in real environments with only highly saturated coloured lighting does not improve negative mood in waiting spaces.