# What did Schloss and Palmer (2011) measure about colour-pair preference and harmony, and what do they say limits generalisation to palettes and to design practice?

- id: art_01M5NHFQ5Q9DQ6HNMC03NZCQDP
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T17, T20 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T23:28:08.340Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5NHFQ5Q9DQ6HNMC03NZCQDP

Schloss and Palmer (2011) show that people judge colour pairs on three distinct questions: how much they like the pair, how harmonious it is, and how much they like the figure colour against its ground. Across 992 two-colour concentric-square pairs, liking and harmony both rise with hue similarity (the best harmony model, with hue similarity, coolness and desaturation, explains 67.3% of variance), while liking of the figure colour rises with hue contrast. The authors caution about other layouts and about combinations of three or more colours.

Schloss and Palmer (2011) show that people judge colour pairs on three distinct questions: how much they like the pair, how harmonious it is, and how much they like the figure colour against its ground. Across 992 two-colour concentric-square pairs, liking and harmony both rise with hue similarity (the best harmony model, with hue similarity, coolness and desaturation, explains 67.3% of variance), while liking of the figure colour rises with hue contrast. The authors caution about other layouts and about combinations of three or more colours.

Curator qualifications: Papers and help page read 2026-10-22; no ratings recomputed. Participant counts (48 in Experiment 1) not re-read in this pass. Curator amendment CA-AM-0071 (2026-10-22): Hold closed (curator re-read of PMC3037488 full text, readback 7320b32a33a9e480): 'There were 48 participants (24 males and 24 females)', and Experiments 2-4 used 'the same 48 observers'; the first stated generalisation concern is whether preferences for 'concentric-square, figure-ground displays will generalize to ... other spatial configurations' (preliminary side-by-side data suggest they do). The three-or-more-colours limit was not located as a phrase in this pass.

Limitations: Papers and help page read 2026-10-22; no ratings recomputed.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC3037488/fullTextXML",
      "note": "Schloss & Palmer 2011, Europe PMC PMC3037488 full text XML: abstract, Design, Results"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] Schloss and Palmer (2011) show that people judge colour pairs on three distinct questions: how much they like the pair, how harmonious it is, and how much they like the figure colour against its ground. Across 992 two-colour concentric-square pairs, liking and harmony both rise with hue similarity (the best harmony model, with hue similarity, coolness and desaturation, explains 67.3% of variance), while liking of the figure colour rises with hue contrast. The authors caution about other layouts and about combinations of three or more colours. · locator: Schloss & Palmer 2011, Europe PMC PMC3037488 full text XML: abstract, Design, Results · source: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC3037488/fullTextXML

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