PDF created with FinePrint pdfFactory trial version http://www.pdffactory.com 2 Abstract Claims of universality pervade color preference research. It has been argued that there are universal preferences for some colors over others (e.g., Eysenck, 1941), universal sex differences (e.g., Hurlbert & Ling, 2007), and universal mechanisms or dimensions that govern these preferences (e.g., Palmer & Schloss, 2010a). However, there have been surprisingly few cross-cultural investigations of color preference, and none from nonindustrialised societies that are relatively free from the common influence of global consumer culture. Here, we compare the color preferences of British adults to those of Himba adults who belong to a non-industrialised culture in rural Namibia. British and Himba color preferences are found to share few characteristics, and Himba color preferences display none of the so-called 'universal' patterns or sex differences. Several significant predictors of color preference are identified such as cone-contrast between stimulus and background (Hurlbert & Ling, 2007), the valence of color-associated objects (Palmer & Schloss, 2010a), and the colorfulness of the color. However, the relationship of these predictors to color preference was strikingly different for the two cultures. No one model of color preference is able to account for both British and Himba color preferences. We suggest that not only do patterns of color preference vary across individuals and groups, but that the underlying mechanisms and dimensions of color preference vary as well. The findings have implications for broader debate on the extent to which our perception and experience of color is culturally relative or universally constrained.PDF created with FinePrint pdfFactory trial version http://www.pdffactory.com 3 Color preferences are not universal Ever since Fechner's (1801-1887) demonstration that abstract forms are pleasing to the human senses (e.g., see Fancher, 1996), scientists have strived to establish the extent to which human preferences for basic sensory stimuli are systematic and universal. The first scientific study of color preferences came soon after Fechner's discovery (Cohn, 1894; cited in Ball, 1965), and a number of large scale investigations of color preference were conducted over the next century (e.g., Eysenck, 1941;Guilford & Smith, 1959;Hogg, 1969). These studies claimed to reveal systematic patterns of color preference, and a universal order of color preference (blue, red, green, purple, orange and yellow) was proposed (Eysenck, 1941).Recent studies of color preference have provided general support for the idea that some colors (e.g., blue) are more likely to be liked than others (e.g., yellow). Although some cultural variation has been acknowledged on the basis of studies that compare the color preferences of two or more cultures
Adults commonly prefer blues most and greenish yellows least, but these hue preferences interact with lightness and saturation (e.g., dark yellow is particularly disliked: Palmer & Schloss (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107: [8877][8878][8879][8880][8881][8882] 2010)). Here, we tested for a similar hue-by-lightness interaction in infant looking preferences, to determine whether adult preferences are evident early in life. We measured looking times for both infants and adults in the same paired-comparison task using all possible pairs of eight colors: four hues (red/yellow/green/blue) at two lightness levels (dark/light). The adult looking data were strikingly similar to other adults' explicit preference responses, indicating for the first time that adults look longer at colors that they like. Infants showed a significant hue-by-lightness interaction, but it was quite different from the adult pattern. In particular, infants had a stronger looking preference for dark yellow and a weaker preference for light blue than did adults. The findings are discussed in relation to theories on the origins of color preference.
It has been proposed that human infants, like nonhuman primates, respond favorably to red in hospitable contexts, yet unfavorably in hostile contexts (Maier, Barchfeld, Elliot, & Pekrun, 2009). Here, we replicate and extend the study (Maier et al., 2009) whose findings have been used to support this hypothesis. As in Maier et al., 1-year-old infants were shown a photograph of a happy or angry face before pairs of colors were presented, yet in the current study, the set of stimuli crucially included two colors that are typically preferred by infants (red and blue). The percentage of times that infants looked first at the colors was analyzed for the two emotional "contexts." Following the happy face, infants looked first at red and blue equally, but significantly more than green. Following the angry face, the pattern of looking preference was the same as following the happy face, but the variation across the three colors was reduced. Contrary to Maier et al.'s hypothesis, there was no evidence that infants are selectively averse to red in angry contexts: following the angry face, "preference" for both red and blue was reduced, but was not significantly below chance. We therefore suggest an alternative account to Maier et al.'s evolutionary hypothesis, which argues that an angry face merely removes infant color preference, potentially due to the perceptual characteristics of the angry face disrupting infants' encoding of color.
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