Examining the Impact of Color-Sound Interactions on Young Pedestrians' Emotions: A Virtual Reality Experiment on a Commercial Street

School of Urban Construction … Safety Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, 201418 China

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

Optimizing the multisensory environment is critical to revitalizing offline commercial districts, yet empirical evidence for the coupling mechanism of color temperature and soundscape remains insufficient. This study aims to explore the coupled effects of color temperature and soundscape on emotional valence and arousal of young pedestrians in commercial streets. A 2 (3000K warm / 6000K cool) × 3 (human-dominant / vehicle-dominant / mixed) within-subjects VR experiment was conducted with 30 participants. Emotional responses were measured using the PANAS scale and analyzed by two-way ANOVA, t-test, and semi-structured interviews. Results reveal three consistent patterns: warm light combined with human-dominant soundscape produces the highest emotional valence, warm light with mixed soundscape yields the highest arousal, and cool light with vehicle-dominant soundscape results in the lowest valence. The findings suggest that multisensory coupling operates through synergistic, antagonistic, and compensatory mechanisms. Notably, warm lighting improves emotional responses under negative sound conditions. Soundscape appears to exert a more immediate influence on emotional perception. These findings highlight the importance of coordinated audiovisual design in commercial environments.