Does Gender Affect Color Preference?
Abstract
The objective of this experiment was to determine if gender plays a role in color preference. In other words, do males actually prefer blue and green, while females favor pink or purple?
This experiment was conducted by surveying ninety-six people, 48 males and 48 females, to complete a short survey. The survey asked them if they were color blind and whether they were male or female. They were then given five color cards (blue, green, pink, purple and yellow) and ordered the sample colors from their favorite to least favorite on a scale of 1-5. The hypothesis was that the majority of males would prefer blue, while females were evenly distributed between
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(Hallock, 2003) People are exposed to color everyday, in every aspect of their lives. It has been suggested through studies done that most children under age five prefer bright, primary colors, such as red, blue, and yellow, more than any others. Not only age, but other factors such as ethnicity, personal history and gender affect our color preference. For example, while Americans brides choose to wear white for their wedding and black to funerals, Asians are just the opposite; choosing black on their wedding day and white for funerals.
Professor Fisher, in 2004, said that color affects human beings in many ways, on both the conscious and subconscious levels, every day of our lives. As Professor Fisher stated, color affects us so many times a day, that often times we don’t even realized it’s happening. Think about all the things you have done today, that in someway involved color. For example, think of a stoplight and what each color on it means; without those colors we would not have the technology of a stoplight and therefore our everyday driving wouldn’t be quite as easy. Most people do not see color as simply the way something looks, however. They tend to associate certain colors with specific feelings, emotions and memories. (Dmitrieva) For instance, blue is most commonly associated with “feeling blue” meaning one feels upset or depressed, however, blue is
In regards to the social information being a factor, if some females saw their other female counterparts swimming toward an attractive male, they too would swim toward the attractive male. Another goal researchers had in mind was to show that females with bigger brains and smaller, do not differ in their ability to perceive color. How the researchers proceeded with this concept was through interbreeding. Five generations of breeding allowed researchers to study brain sizes that differed 13 percent. After the interbreeding, 36 large brained females and 36 small brained females were dropped into separate, small white tanks to see how they responded to colors they saw. The researchers pinpointed their question through these tests: optomor circling,compass reaction, nystagmic reaction, and zero motivation. The optomotor circling was used to view the visual performance of guppies, the compass reaction was the idea that if a female guppie turned herself to the color and the direction of the color, she would go toward that. Nystagmic reaction was following the color back and forth and realizing it was there. And finally there was Zero motivation, which determined if she was going to swim toward the
How do Colors directly impact our feelings, mood, and decisions? This paper is a research paper that is supported by Metro State University’s electronic library, in how Color psychology and light therapy together can affect neurological functioning. It will inform the reader that colors and light affect our subconscious responses that happen while being exposed to that color.
Gender roles in society, throughout history, has been the leading cause of social expectations, and gender stereotypes, which has influenced children’s social identity. Notably, in the early eighteen century, society did not represent infants as a separate gender, but as an equal individual. Although, in the 1920s, the classification of sex identity started to emerge because of social changes occurring in the labor force. As a result, gender colors such as, pink and blue were highly used to provide variety in children’s clothing. Consequently, the symbol of pink and blue created an identity and the social expectation of gender representation. The media then used social associations to promote gender separation on children’s toys.
Martha L. Picariello, Danna N. Greenberg, and David B. Pillemer did a study focusing on the relationship of sex related stereotyping of color among children. The study consisted of nine girls and seven boys whose ages where between 54 to 72 months and eight girls and nine boys whose ages where between 39 to 58 months. The first study they did consisted of six stuffed toy pigs which centered around gender stereotyped colors; three of masculine colors, Brown, navy blue and maroon and three feminine colors bright pink, light pink, and lavender. The first part of this study asked the children to chose their favorite pig and 70% of the children choose a pig whose color correlated to their gender stereotyped color. Next the children where asked to
Does color effect mood and emotional state? Wexner (1954) investigated associations between color samples and words describing moods. In general, the results of that study tended to support the findings of other color-emotion association studies. In particular, red was found to be more strongly associated with the terms excitement and stimulation implying a state of higher arousal. Blue was associated with the terms secure/comfortable and tender/soothing, implying states of pleasantness and lower arousal, while black was associated with the terms powerful/strong/masterful, implying a link with higher performance. Wexner (1954) presented some of the earliest research on the matter and found that some colors were more likely to be associated with feelings, or mood-tones.
For decades, researchers have been studying how children develop gender-stereotyped behaviour, such as preferences for pink or blue. Some have suggested, for example, that since gender-stereotyped colour dressing is so common in infancy, infants develop a preference for these familiar colours as they grow older (Chiu et al., 2006; Cohen,
Presented at birth men are given the color blue and women are given the color pink. Although when both men and women are older they still don’t typically stay wearing those same colors. By then they have expanded their typical gender norms that were presented to them at birth causing them to adapt themselves to many new colors.
The human brains reaction to color is called color psychology. Marketers consider the meaning behind each color when designing merchandise packaging, and consumers choose certain products because they find the packaging to be appealing, and subconsciously playing into the plans of the companies. The history and study of color has presented a plethora of information regarding the important role color plays in everyday life. The scientific reasoning behind color psychology has yet to be specified due to the wide variety of factors that could affect the results, such as personal preference, personal history, and environmental conditions. Although marketers might not consider such specific details of color psychology, there
Color is said to have an effect and can increase person’s arousal depending on what color it will be. In another theory it's suggested that we pay attention to bright colors first because of their strong emotional effect on us. It was proposed by Faber Birren (1950) that warm colors, such as red and yellow, increase arousal more than cool colors, such as green and blue. Warm colors are those that are detailed in nature. Birren’s finding was supported by further research done by Greene, et al. (1983). They found that warm colors increase arousal compared to cool colors like brown and gray.
Test Analysis: Chi-square analysis was done using TI-84plus to identify the association of gender and preference of color. The claim that the color chosen is dependent of the gender is tested at ∝=0.05.
Color psychology is the study of the effect of color on human behavior and perception. We are influenced with all sorts of colors around us. When we see red color, we get a feeling of avoidance, blue gives us a soothing and warm feeling and yellow makes you feel lively and joyful. Why it is that sometimes our moods define what kind of colors we like and also the color of the clothes we wear. Black color stands for smart professional etiquette and gray gives you a very dull appearance. All throughout the years, studies have been conducted to analyze the psychological impact of color on your thinking, choice, memory, learning and cognitive recognition.
Colors have deep imaginative meanings that affect our thinking and rational. They have symbolic meaning that changes amongst different cultures and countries. We are faced with color choices a lot. The first important decision of the day usually is in the morning when deciding what to wear. Usually we will choose our clothes based on our mood of the day.
First let’s lay it out in lavender, with the history of color scientifically. Then we will “blend” into the science of color, and illusions. Next we will talk about how color affects our mood and life. Lastly let roll out the red carpet for, how the world looks at color.
In doing this, each individual response was able to be seen. The first five questions dealing with colors and associated emotion results were displayed through a bar graph. The bar graphs have a large amount of data because it was a short answer question, meaning there were a large variety of answers. The questions that are devoted to the different film stills are much easier to decipher because of the way it’s presented and multiple choice format. Overall, 46.2% of people associated the color red with anger, (see figure 1). Other emotions included 13.9% of people saying red meant love. Other people said red meant passion or aggression. When observing the color yellow, 59.6% of people said yellow meant happiness or cheerfulness. Other answered feelings like hunger, guilt, illness, and confusion. The color green was the most diverse color presented in the study. A bar graph isn’t necessary due to the diversity of answers presented. Answers included feelings like: jealousy, fresh, tired, calm, isolation, disgust, and luck. The color blue was not a very diverse color when looking at results. Around 48.8% of people said blue was very sad, lonely, and lonely. The rest of the results include blue being associated with tranquility or confidence. The last color that was presented was the color pink. Most people seemed to associate pink with feeling like love, femininity, adoration, see Figure 2 below for the full results on pink.
Colors have lots of meanings. We use many of the same colors but we mix them with other colors and we get the different shades of these colors. For example, while red is the color most associated with love, it also the color most frequently associated with hatred, anger, aggression, and war. People who are angry are said to "see red." Red is the color most commonly associated with passion and heat. Blue is the color between violet and green on the optical spectrum of visible light. Human eyes perceive blue when observing light with a wavelength between 450 and 495 nanometers, which is between 45 and 49.5 Angstroms. Green is the color between blue and yellow on the spectrum of visible light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength of roughly 495–570 nm. Pink is a pale Red