Color preference and color meaning in the context of flags

Researchers have argued that people’s general color preferences can readily be generalized to their color preferences for artificial objects. However, although a strong general preference for blue has been documented, recent researchers have reported a preference for red when viewed on national flags. We addressed this inconsistency by examining the flag color preferences of 181 Chinese participants across 3 contexts: own nation, allied nation, and enemy nation. We found that general color preferences did not generalize to flag color preferences, and that preferences varied across the different 3 flag contexts. Participants assessed competitive and affiliative meanings differently in terms of conformity to the most preferred flag colors across contexts, indicating that flags have different color meanings in different contexts. We have contributed to the field of color psychology by demonstrating the effect of the interaction between color and context on people’s color preferences.