Gender difference in color preference across cultures: An archetypal pattern modulated by a female cultural stereotype

Abstract

A gender difference in color preference among British participants has been repeatedly reported, in which both males and females show a preference for blue-green colors, while females express an additional preference for pink-purple colors. To investigate the robustness of gender difference in color preference in a different culture, we tested 81 young adult Indians from a school of design and compared them to 80 young British students in Psychology. The 35-item International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) and Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) questionnaires were also administered to explore possible links between personality traits, gender schemata, and color preferences. Results confirmed a gender difference in both cultures; participants collectively expressed a preference for cool over warm colors, while in addition females showed a preference for pink colors, with a warm bias for Indian females and a cool bias for British females. While these results extend gender difference to Indian culture and support the universality of an underlying pattern they also reveal a culture-specific contribution essentially observed in females. In British participants, color preference was correlated exclusively with BSRI scores in females and overwhelmingly with IPIP scores in males; this gender-specific pattern of correlation was not replicated in the Indian sample. Results point to an archetypal pattern of gender difference in color preference with a remarkable cross-cultural similarity in men and a subtle but significant cultural difference in women whose origin is yet to be explained. K E Y W O R D Scolor preference, cultural difference, gender difference, principal component analysis | I NT ROD UCTI ONIn context-free situations, people are willing to rank colors in order of preference or to indicate a preferred color out of several different options. However, studies are not unanimous as whether or not robust gender differences on color preference exist nor, if they do, the extent to which they are pancultural.

Pink for Girls, Red for Boys, and Blue for Both Genders: Colour Preferences in Children and Adults

“…In addition to these gender differences, we observed that blue was the most common favourite colour by both genders of all ages. Hence, despite the popular notion that blue is for boys (Cunningham & Macrae, 2011), our and other empirical studies indicate that blue (or blue-green, which was included in the blue hue category in the current study) is the most popular hue for both genders when genders were considered together (Eysenck, 1941;Hemphill, 1996;Jonauskaite et al, 2016;Palmer & Schloss, 2010) or separately (Bonnardel et al, 2017;Ou et al, 2004). Other developmental studies have also shown that blue is a liked colour by boys and girls, with few gender differences (Chiu et al, 2006;Terwogt & Hoeksma, 1995).…”

“…In particular, we hypothesised that women would show a tendency to select pinkish-reddish hues, whereas men would not select them. We also predicted that blue would be equally liked by men and women (e.g., Bonnardel et al, 2017;Eysenck, 1941). One important result from previous literature was that the gender difference in preference for pink was higher in girls than in women.…”

“…A recent study in China showed that 5-8 year-old girls preferred pink over blue whereas boys preferred blue over pink (Yeung & Wong, 2018). Adult women in Saudi Arabia, China, India, and Papua New Guinea also preferred reddish-pinkish or purple hues to a greater extent than did men (Al-Rasheed, 2015;Bonnardel et al, 2017;He et al, 2011;Sorokowski et al, 2014;Witzel, 2015). Several other studies, however, did not report such a gender difference in China, Namibia, or Japan (Ou et al, 2004;Taylor, Clifford, et al, 2013;Yokosawa, Schloss, Asano, & Palmer, 2016).…”

“…If absolute colour preferences followed the same pattern as relative colour preferences, we expected to observe gender differences in colour preferences in children (Chiu et al, 2006; LoBue & DeLoache, 2011) and in adults (Bonnardel et al, 2017;Hurlbert & Ling, 2007;Sorokowski et al, 2014). In particular, we hypothesised that women would show a tendency to select pinkish-reddish hues, whereas men would not select them.…”

“…Boys as compared to girls, on the other hand, liked blue, green, red, black, and orange (Pranckevičienė et al, 2009). In adulthood, women prefer pinkish-reddish colours more than men do (Al-Rasheed, 2015;Bonnardel, Beniwal, Dubey, Pande, & Bimler, 2017;He et al, 2011;Hurlbert & Ling, 2007;Sorokowski, Sorokowska, & Witzel, 2014;but also see Eysenck, 1941;Ou, Luo, Woodcock, & Wright, 2004;. In sum, a female bias for pinkish hues starts around two years of age, an age when children become aware of their own gender and what is (or is not) considered appropriate for girls and boys (Zosuls et al, 2009).…”