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

Self Cite

Popular opinion holds that color has specific affective meaning. Brighter, more chromatic, and warm colors were conceptually linked to positive stimuli and darker, less chromatic, and cool colors to negative stimuli. Whether such systematic color associations exist with actually mood felt remains to be tested. We experimentally induced four moods—joy, relaxation, fear, and sadness—in a between‐subject design (N = 96). Subsequently, we asked participants to select a color, from an unrestricted sample, best representing their current mood. Color choices differed between moods on hue, lightness, and chroma. Yellow hues were systematically associated with joy while yellow‐green hues with relaxation. Lighter colors were matched to joy and relaxation (positive moods) than fear and sadness (negative moods). Most chromatic colors were matched to joy, then relaxation, fear, and sadness. We conclude that color choices represent felt mood to some extent, after accounting for a relatively low specificity for color‐mood associations.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What color do you feel? Color choices are driven by mood

Jonauskaitė

Althaus

Dael

et al. 2018

Self Cite

“…This could be due to social learning from a young age of gender-stereotyped colors where society has displayed pink for girls and blue for boys, which could influence color preferences. 45,46 The choice for the color blue could indicate the color's association with masculinity. Women not wanting to see men wear magenta might be due to the colors genderstereotyped association with femininity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a global shift toward gender fluidity and gender equality. 17,46 It could be that women avoid red due to not wanting to be treated like a sexual object and instead chose a different color in order to promote gender equality. 46 However, scaling values showed that yellow was the preferred color to wear with denim bottoms by the female participants, indicating that other influences are affecting preferences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Men preferred not to wear yellow‐green, while women preferred for men not to wear magenta. This could be due to social learning from a young age of gender‐stereotyped colors where society has displayed pink for girls and blue for boys, which could influence color preferences . The choice for the color blue could indicate the color's association with masculinity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Women generally preferred to wear the colors turquoise or blue with black bottoms or a single outfit, but not when wearing denim bottoms. There is a global shift toward gender fluidity and gender equality . It could be that women avoid red due to not wanting to be treated like a sexual object and instead chose a different color in order to promote gender equality .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Colored apparel and its potential influence on heterosexual attraction

Sullivan

Kazlauciunas

Guthrie

2019

The objective of this study is to determine if men would follow the "red effect" when choosing colors for women to wear on a date, and also to determine if the colors that men would wear when going on a date would be the same as the colors that females (their date) would wish them to wear. A set of psychophysical data was generated from this experiment, where participants were asked to rank a set of 10 colored samples based on preference for each question asked. There were three different sets of colored samples. The set of colored samples given to the participant depended on the question. A total of five questions were asked. Scaling analysis was done on the data to organize a set of items according to preferences providing values, an interval scale (Z values), that correspond to the relative perceptual differences among the stimuli. The Z values were graphed to show the general preference of colors for women to wear, and the preference of colors for men to wear. A Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient (SRCC) was calculated comparing each individual's rank order with the mean rank order for that specific question. An average Spearman's rank order was calculated for each question and each gender in order to determine the variability in answers. Scaling results indicate that men follow the "red effect," but women preferred to wear other colors such as turquoise, blue, or yellow depending on the outfit. Males and females agreed that no matter the colored bottoms (denim or black), blue was the preferred color top for men to wear. SRCC results showed a lot of variability between individual answers and the mean answer indicating that participants' rankings did not necessarily agree with general color preferences presented in the scaling analysis. While scaling analysis might suggest certain color preferences such as men following the "red effect" and women preferring to wear blue, the poor correlation found using SRCC between the individual answers and the mean rank orders suggests that color preferences for each individual are inherently unique. K E Y W O R D Scolor apparel, color preference, color psychology, heterosexual attraction

The impact of color preference on adolescent children's choice of furniture

Jiang

Cheung

Westland

et al. 2020

It is widely believed that children will choose furniture that has the same color as their preferred color. Furthermore, for different categories of furniture, the color they preferred for furniture is consistent. A study of 508 adolescent Chinese children between the ages of 12 and 16 has been carried out to explore whether color preference influences their choice of furniture when they are provided with various color options (16 chromatic and five achromatic colors). This work tested six items of furniture in two functional spaces (study and bedroom space). Findings indicate that adolescent children's color preferences did indeed affect their furniture choice, but the extent varies with the categories of furniture. Furthermore, this study reveals that children's preference for furniture in different functional spaces is slightly different. Some effects of gender and age were also explored. This work discusses the implications of adolescent color preference and color choice for children's furniture color design.