Associations Between Colors and Emotions Are Universal

In language, we easily link colors and emotions. English speakers see red, feel blue, or are green with envy, meaning they are angry, sad, 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. 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. As one can see, some of these color metaphors repeat across languages, while others differ. In some languages, different colors might not only relate to different emotions but signal different intensities of the same emotion. 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).