The Ifop survey for Airbnb, conducted among a representative sample of 1,000 French people aged 18 and older, explores their relationship with color in everyday life.
Six out of 10 French people (60%) believe that their everyday visual environment (streets, buildings, stores, workplaces, interiors) has become duller and more uniform in recent years, compared with 40% who find it more colorful and varied.
Among the former, nearly two-thirds (65%) say they are tired of seeing neutral and subdued colors—which amounts to nearly 4 out of 10 French people when considering the entire population (39%).
More broadly, 7 out of 10 French people (71%) say they want to be surrounded by more color, a desire that is more pronounced among women (78%, compared to 65% of men).
This desire stems from a widespread recognition of the effects of color: more than 8 in 10 French people (85%) believe that color in their daily environment has a positive effect on their mood, and 8 in 10 (80%) say that bright colors in a landscape or setting make them want to travel.
Finally, the positive emotion that French people most spontaneously associate with discovering a place featuring colors they appreciate is wonder (36% of all mentions, including 21% as the top response), ahead of joy (35%, including 19%), escapism (32%, of which 14%), energy (28%, of which 14%), calm (25%, of which 12%), and curiosity (23%, of which 11%). Nostalgia was mentioned only marginally (5%, of which 2%), and 7% of respondents did not cite any of these emotions.
