  The preferences to color quality of illumination were investigated for
American and Chinese subjects using a solid-state source of white light with
the continuously tunable color saturation ability and correlated color
temperature of quadrichromatic blends. Subjects were asked to identify both
most natural and preferred blends. For very familiar objects, cultural
differences did not affect the average of the selected blends. For less
familiar objects (various paintings), cultural differences in the average
selected blends depended on the level of the familiarity of the content. An
unfamiliar painting also showed preferences to color temperature being
dependent on the cultural background. In all cases, the American subjects
exhibited noticeably wider distributions.

Physics and Society