To arrive at this finding, we estimated the degree of linguistic similarity between two languages, which shows how related or unrelated they are. In Lithuanian, the degree of anger is coded through color-as Lithuanian speakers become increasingly outraged, descriptions move from being white of anger, to red, to blue, and finally to black (i.e., pabalę, paraudę, pamėlę, or pajuodę iš pykčio).įourth, participants whose languages were more similar to each other also had more similar associations. In some languages, different colors might not only relate to different emotions but signal different intensities of the same emotion. As one can see, some of these color metaphors repeat across languages, while others differ. German speakers sehen rot (see red), sind blau (are blue), or werden gelb vor Neid (turn yellow with envy), meaning they are angry, drunk, or envious, respectively. French speakers voient rouge (see red), ont une peur blue (have a blue fear), or ont un rire jaune (have a yellow laugh), meaning they are angry, extremely anxious, or display a forced false laugh. English speakers see red, feel blue, or are green with envy, meaning they are angry, sad, or envious, respectively. In language, we easily link colors and emotions. Source: Photo by Eliška Motisová on Unsplash
