Color and Form Perception on the Rorschach as a Function of Eye Color

Abstract

Recent research has demonstrated that dark-eyed individuals are more reactive than light-eyed people. The present paper investigated one area of reactivity, ease of emotional arousal. The hypothesis that dark-eyed male subjects (n = 40) would show greater ease of arousal than light-eyed male subjects (n = 40) was tested using color and form responses on the Rorschach as dependent measures. The predicted interaction was significant; light-eyed subjects gave relatively more form responses, but dark-eyed subjects gave relatively more color responses. Implications for future research and application were discussed.