Do We Dream in Color? Cultural Variations and Skepticism
Eric Schwitzgebel, Changbing Huang, and Yifeng Zhou

Dreaming, 16 (2006), 36-42.

Abstract

In the United States, the rise and fall of the opinion that we dream in black and white coincided with the rise and fall of black and white film media over the course of the twentieth century, suggesting that our opinions about the coloration of our dreams are hostage to cultural influences.  This study generalizes that conclusion cross-culturally.  Three groups of Chinese respondents, similar in age but differing in history of colored media exposure, were given questionnaires replicating those of Middleton (1942) and Schwitzgebel (2003).  As expected, the groups with longer histories of colored media exposure reported the most colored dreaming.

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Please note: My main paper on this topic is "Why Did We Think We Dreamed in Black and White?"


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