Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/380

364 Our first interest lies in determining what colors are the general favorites. The first place is held by blue, which is selected as the most pleasing color by slightly more than one quarter of all the voters; and the second place, though not a good second, by red, which is chosen by somewhat less than half as many as choose blue. In the next group of most pleasing colors are found lighter blue, blue violet, red violet, lighter red (or pink) violet, and "no choice," while the five least favorite colors are orange and its shadings toward red and yellow. In order to illustrate the significance of this result it may be noted that the four colors, blue, red, lighter blue, and blue violet, constitute just about half the entire preferences; or, again, if we divide the number of records into four approximately equal parts, blue would constitute the first quarter; red, lighter blue, and blue violet the second quarter; red violet, lighter red, violet, "no choice," green, and yellow the third quarter; and the remaining fifteen colors would constitute the last quarter of the color preferences.

It will be remembered that the colors presented for selection were divisible into two groups, the one group composed of the lighter shades of the colors of the other group. On comparing the preferences between the two groups it appears unmistakably that the darker colors are decidedly preferred. Of every seven persons five choose among the darker colors and only two among the lighter. An equally unmistakable tendency is the preference for the primary colors—i. e., red, orange, yellow, etc.—as opposed to the transitional ones—i. e., red orange, orange yellow, etc.; this preference is nearly as marked as that of the dark above the lighter shades. This seems to indicate that colors more distinctly corresponding to familiar shades and names are apt to be chosen as opposed to those that are less typical and familiar. All these results appear so clearly and strikingly that they may be regarded as possessing considerable general validity.

We may now consider the color preferences of the two sexes. The differences between the male and female preferences are