Chuang and Ou (2001) found that pairs in which both colors were the same in hue were judged as more harmonious than those with different hues, and we found the same to be true for pair preferences in Experiment 1.
As was also true for pair preferences, there is virtually no evidence supporting Chevreul's (1839) claim that contrastive hues are harmonious.
In the section about his methods, the text explains: "To create a harmonious painting, yet exaggerating the hues to enhance their power of expression, van Gogh used his own formula based on a play of contrasts between complementary colors".
Shigeru Ban Architects' REVERBERATION - Pavilion of Light and Sound is a tensile structure that fills the historic Palazzo Pisani with reflective surfaces, a dark hue underneath, and harmonious sounds produced from the naturally suspended parabola it creates. .
He found that harmony/preference increased as hue distance increased in this task as well, suggesting that his subjects may actually have liked and/or found the combinations more harmonious when they differed greatly in hue.
Ou and Luo (2006) later reported that pairs were harmonious when colors were similar in hue, different in lightness, had a high combined (summed) lightness, and included light yellow as a component.
The best fitting model (Fig. 4) for the 992 color pairs showed that more harmonious pairs were more similar in hue, cooler, more desaturated, and more similar in coolness (67.3% of the variance explained).
The results of Experiment 2 provided evidence that color harmony is not only closely related to color preference but also to color similarity: Harmonious colors are those with smaller hue differences, smaller differences in coolness, and lower total saturation, all of which imply that more harmonious colors are more similar to each other.
"This is probably the best example of how a master plan works," Mr. Farley, the former university vice chancellor, said of the buildings, which are soft in hue and individually distinctive but harmonious with one another.
Pair preference, harmony, and similarity are related to each other primarily because all of them increase as the hue similarity between the component colors increases: Color combinations with similar hues are generally more preferred, more harmonious, and more similar to each other.
