The field of color correlations in Russian-speaking grapheme-colour synesthetes as a biosociocultural paradigm

The aim of the study is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of color representation in the synesthetic perception of Russian alphabet and Arabic numerals, and outlining the sociocultural potential of grapheme-color synesthesia. Open-access textual, graphic, and combined "synesthetic palettes" of Russian-speaking synesthetes comprise the subject matter of the research; its scope is the color choices structure in synesthetic grapheme characterizations. Two data categories were analyzed: 25 letter-color correlation sets (16 females, 6 males, 3 unspecified); and 23 number-color correlation sets (17 females, 5 males, 1 unspecified). The hues were grouped and sorted by the number of mentions. For each group, the numbers of "top-choice" positions, grapheme counterparts, and mentions were calculated, and the color groups most and least represented were defined. The Shannon, Margalef, and Simpson indices were employed to assess the "color diversity" of synesthetic correlations. The most "popular" synesthetic colors are blue ('sinij'), green and yellow, and the least "popular" are light blue ('goluboj'), pink, beige (for letter-color correlations) / transparent (for number-color correlations), and orange. The color diversity assessment revealed its moderately high level. The average number of color groups in individual synesthetic correlations field was 10 for letters and 8 for numbers. A qualitative variability is significant for both the colors (including achromatic shades) and their verbal descriptions. The novelty of the research is that quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to analyze synesthesia comprehensively and interdisciplinary as a biosociocultural phenomenon. The results indicate an expanded synesthetic perception of a grapheme as a sign and its content. This establishes a potential for using synesthesia to encode messages in the color fields of individual and public spaces to express their significant meanings or functions, create a comfortable environment for certain social groups and, finally, form urban identities.

synesthesia, grapheme, color, color field, color term, diversity index, sign, color coding, perception, biosocial phenomenon