Personality trait correlates of color preference in schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: The goal of the present study was to evaluate the color preferences of patients with schizophrenia and their correlations with personality traits. METHODOLOGY: Sixty-three patients with schizophrenia and 59 healthy volunteers were asked to undertake the color preference and the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ) tests. RESULTS: The healthy volunteers showed a greater preference for green but a lesser one for brown compared to the patients with schizophrenia. Patients scored higher than the healthy volunteers on the ZKPQ Neuroticism-Anxiety and Activity scales. Moreover, in patients, black preference ranking was associated with the Neuroticism-Anxiety, whereas pink and orange preferences were negatively associated with Activity; white preference correlated negatively with Sociability. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with schizophrenia preferred green less but brown more, and displayed their personality correlates of these color preferences. These findings are suggesting that patients with schizophrenia should be encouraged to be more exposed to bright colors such as green and white, and less to dark colors such as black, during therapy and rehabilitation sessions.