Do you know which color people like the most? Many people say that it is red, but in fact, it is not, blue is the most popular color in the world. Even blue flowers are particularly flattering, such as jacaranda, which is the favorite of many people.
Jacaranda
In 1993, Crayola, the American crayon maker, conducted a less rigorous but interesting survey: asking American kids to name their favorite crayon colors. Most of the kids chose standard blue, and three other blues made the list.
Seven years later, the company experimented again. Standard blue once again topped the list, while six other blues also appeared in the top ten, including the pleasing name "blizzard blue" (blizzard blue). It is a hue that harmonizes purple, green and pink.
Lauren Labrecque, an associate professor at the University of Rhode Island, specializes in the role of color in marketing. She wasn't surprised by blue's dominance in the list.
She often asked the students in her class to say what she liked the most. After getting a response, she presented: "I've done a slide that says '80% of people choose blue,'" la Brecke is usually right.
"Because when we grow up, we all love blue. It seems to be cross-cultural, and there's not much national distinction — people just love blue. ”
We tend to choose our favorite color in childhood: ask what the favorite color is, and most children, with crayons in their hands, will rush to answer. Studies have shown that infants' preferences for color are rather inconsistent.
However, they do prefer light colors. However, as children age, they become more fond of specific colors, based on their experience with colors. They may associate bright colors like orange, yellow, purple, or pink with positive emotions.
A study of 330 children aged 4 to 11 found that they used their favorite color when drawing "good guys" and tended to use black when drawing "bad guys" (although other studies didn't find this connection, so the relationship between emotional connection and color wasn't direct).
As children get older, social collective consciousness can also have a big impact on color choices – for example, girls' clothes and toys tend to be pink.
It is widely believed that children choose darker colors as they enter adolescence, but there is not much research to support this. In the UK, for example, adolescent girls were found to prefer purple and red, while boys preferred green and yellow.
A study of bedroom color options for teenage boys in the UK found that they tended to choose white, while their favorite colors were red and blue.
As you grow up, people's favorite colors seem to converge. Interestingly, while most adults say they like blue, the colors they don't like are probably similar as well: dull yellow browns are often considered the least popular.
Why do we have our favorite colors? More importantly, what factors contribute to these preferences?
Simply put, we have favorite colors because we have favorite things.
At least that's the gist of the ecological valence theory, a point put forward by Karen Schloss, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues.
Seven-colored flowers
Her experiments showed that colors, even beige, were far from neutral. Rather, it is humans who give meaning to colors, mostly from their subjective experience, and thus create highly personal factors to judge colors that are offensive or likable.
"This explains why different people have different preferences for the same color, and why your preference for a particular color changes over time," Schloss says. ”
As new associations with color increase—whether it's contact with the world around us, or artificially consciously conceived—the colors we like change over time.
Schloss perfected the theory through several experiments, including one at the University of California-Berkeley.
She and her team showed participants the colored squares on the screen and asked them to rate how much they liked them. The researchers then walked away, heralding the next step.
The researchers again showed the participants color images, only this time, they saw not ordinary squares, but objects. Each image is dominated by one of four hues.
Contrast images with yellow and blue as the main colors: These depict neutral objects, such as staplers or screwdrivers. However, the red and green photos were deliberately distorted.
Half of the participants saw red pictures that evoked good memories, such as succulent strawberries or roses on Valentine's Day, while green pictures were designed as disgusting objects such as slime or pond scum.
The other half saw a set of opposite associations: red wounds, and green undulating hills or kiwifruit.
After another color preference test, Schloss and the team found a change in preference. The color emphasized on the front affected the participants' choice, while the choice of disgusting hue was barely diminished.
The next day, the participants came back and tested again to see if the preference could last overnight, but there were no results. Schloss said the changes caused by the experiment seemed overwhelmed by the colors that participants experienced in the real world.
"Experiments tell us that our experiences are constantly influencing the way we see and understand the world," Schloss said. Think of your preference for color as a summary of your experience with color: Your everyday experiences in this world affect your judgment. ”
Schloss's research on color preference may somehow inadvertently explain why blue is so universally loved. Since the earliest recorded color studies in the 19th century, the love of blue has not been interrupted.
Most of our experiences with this color should be positive, such as deep oceans or clear skies. Although we have the idiom of "blue melancholy", it is also only used in English.
Similarly, research could explain why cloudy brown is so disliked because it is associated with excrement or rotten food.
Gentian flowers
However, there is a brief period of time each year when this color is favored, thanks in large part to the fact that the solar terms change the colors of nature.
In an experiment in which Schloss's team asked New England volunteers to track their liking and dislike of color on a weekly basis, the goal of the experiment (or at least part of the purpose) was to find out if the favorite color was part of the essence of personality and did not change.
The result is that favorite colors are directly influenced by their surroundings, and the rise and fall of likes and dislikes is synchronized with the tones of nature. "As the color of the environment changes, so do people's preferences," she said.
Iris
The biggest ascents occurred in autumn, when warm colors, such as dark red and orange, won higher praise, and then the leaves drifted away and the love withered with it.
When asked why there is a fondness for warm colors in autumn, she gives two explanations. First, the area where she conducted the study is known for its autumn colors.
hyacinth
Leaf viewing is a tourist attraction in New England, so participants may have been prepared for this preference. More interestingly, however, is that she also believes in the reasons for the change in color preferences.
"It's interesting speculation, maybe it's a rapid, drastic change in the environment that then disappears." Winter is white and brown, but we rarely go outside to see it. ”
crocus
Living environment also influences our preference for color in other ways. Another study conducted by Schloss surveyed students at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, and the results showed that the colors of college athletic teams affect students' favorite colors. The more students accept and support the values and spirit of the school, the higher this preference becomes.
It's easy to assume that eco-valence theory takes time to validate, embedding those social cues in the world we see. But the experimental psychologist Domicele Jonauskaite thought it was wrong.
Bluebell flowers
She studied color cognition and emotional connotations at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and observed how boys and girls perceive blue and pink— they expressed their preference for color at a very young age.
Girls' fondness for pink has a bell-shaped curve, peaking at the age of 5 or 6 and declining by adolescence. "But the boys didn't like pink since they were kids, at least five years old.
There are stalked blue bell flowers
They think 'I can like any color – just don't like pink'. Boys like pink are really rebellious," she said. "It's hard to find one of adult men who can say, 'Pink is my favorite.'"
Some researchers have proposed that this particular color preference, rooted in gender, is an evolution. The theory is that women are gatherers in hunter-gatherer societies and therefore need to develop a preference for colors associated with berries.
Blue vermilion red
Jonoskate said it was complete nonsense. He cites several recent papers examining color preferences in regional cultures. For example, not a single girl in villages in the Peruvian Amazon basin and in the tribes of the northern part of the Republic of the Congo showed a preference for pink.
"Boys have this preference or aversion because they have a set of guidelines for gender identity," she said. In fact, until the 1920s, pink was considered a typical male color and it wasn't until the mid-20th century that it began to be associated with girls.
Wine glasses flowers
Alice Skelton, head of the Sussex Colour Group & Baby Lab at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, said even the youngest children can perceive colors and express likes and dislikes.
Her area of particular interest is in infants and children, hoping to better understand how the preference for color at an early age translates into aesthetics in adult life. "It's a big misconception to think babies can't see colors — they can," she said, and eye development is unbalanced. At birth, the senses of green and red are more mature than those of blue and yellow, so the intense red color is most easily recognized by newborns.
Shallots - sky blue
Eco-valence theory holds that the meaning of objects we perceive is closely related to color, even for the youngest. "Kids notice color just because of the features associated with it. They don't really pay attention to color unless they learn something from it," Skelton said.
Suppose there are two bottles. One is green and the other is pink. The green bottle contains a delicious liquid, and the pink bottle contains a sour mixture. Children pay attention to and remember these colors because recognizing differences brings cognitive gains. "It's like a ripe banana — color is a useful cue for certain properties of an object," Skelton said. ”
Sunshine lily
Of course, ripe bananas may be yellow-brown, a color that sensitive adults tend to avoid in experiments. Skelton offers a comforting explanation for those who don't like blue.
People who prefer generally unpleasant hues may have grown up at a certain time and nostalgic for a good childhood – think of babies snuggled up on brown sofas (a classic lamb down sofa) in the 1970s. But there is another interesting possibility. Most people think that blue has a sense of harmony, pleasure, and positivity visually, and is therefore attracted to it.
Hundred Lotus
"It may be because some people want to have physical and mental tranquility, while others seek sensory stimulation, like the difference between a lark and an owl (the former is good at morning song, the latter loves to cry at night)," she said. Think of artists, whose main job is to constantly challenge, hoping to break through visual conventions and aesthetic stereotypes. ”
There is no doubt that none of them are the ones who will choose blue crayons.
Snow mowing
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