The world might seem a little grayer than usual when we're down in the dumps and we often talk about "feeling blue" -- new research suggests that the associations we make between emotion and color go beyond mere metaphor. The results of two studies indicate that feeling sadness may actually change how we perceive color. Specifically, researchers found that participants who were induced to feel sad were less accurate in identifying colors on the blue-yellow axis than those who were led to feel amused or emotionally neutral. The researchers note that previous work has specifically linked color perception on the blue-yellow axis with the neurotransmitter dopamine. Christopher Thorstenson, the first author on the new research, points out that this research charts new territory, and that follow-up studies are essential to fully understanding the relationship between emotion and color perception.

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