WEBVTT - Why Do We Have Favorite Colors?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff Lauren vog obamb here. We humans all

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<v Speaker 1>have a favorite color or colors, but historically it's been

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<v Speaker 1>difficult to empirically explain why. It was easy to prove

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<v Speaker 1>that people do like certain colors more than others, and

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<v Speaker 1>research has shown that people often associate colors with feelings. However,

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<v Speaker 1>because there was no standardization of colors or some smaller

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<v Speaker 1>subset of colors for scientists to work with, no one

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<v Speaker 1>could explain why we like certain colors. Enter Karen Schloss.

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<v Speaker 1>As a child, her favorite activity was organizing her crayons. Today,

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<v Speaker 1>Schloss is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology

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<v Speaker 1>at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of

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<v Speaker 1>Wisconsin Madison, and has conducted critical studies on color preference.

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<v Speaker 1>She said, I certainly have very strong color preferences that

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<v Speaker 1>change aged over time, and these preferences influence a ton

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<v Speaker 1>of decisions that we make, from the clothes that we wear,

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<v Speaker 1>to the way we color our environments, and to the

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<v Speaker 1>products we buy. With these influences in mind, she and

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<v Speaker 1>her collaborator Stephen Palmer, PhD, a researcher at EC Berkeley

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<v Speaker 1>set out to find why we like certain colors more

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<v Speaker 1>than others. Through a series of lab studies between and seventeen,

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<v Speaker 1>Schloss and Palmer hypothesized the ecological valence theory or e

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<v Speaker 1>v T, which they describe in their paper as the

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<v Speaker 1>theory that quote, people like slash dislike a given color

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<v Speaker 1>to the degree that they like slash dislike all of

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<v Speaker 1>the objects and entities that they associate with that color.

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<v Speaker 1>For example, people often like blue hues because it reminds

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<v Speaker 1>them of clear skies and clean water. On the other hand,

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<v Speaker 1>people tend to shy away from brown hues because they

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<v Speaker 1>remind us of feces or rotting food. That was their hypothesis,

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<v Speaker 1>So where they right To explore this theory? Schloss and

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<v Speaker 1>Palmer conducted a series of lab studies with several separate

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<v Speaker 1>groups of participants who ranked color preferences, what colors made

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<v Speaker 1>them think of certain objects, and if those objects represented

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<v Speaker 1>positive or negative things. The result, they found that eight

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<v Speaker 1>percent of the change in average color preferences from one

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<v Speaker 1>group of people to another was based on how much

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<v Speaker 1>other people like objects related to those colors. Shlas said,

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<v Speaker 1>that's really cool. That's our first evidence that these patterns

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<v Speaker 1>of color preferences can be explained by those objects associated

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<v Speaker 1>with those colors. With this data, the pair could explore

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<v Speaker 1>different topics of color preferences, like individual preferences, changes over time,

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<v Speaker 1>or even cultural preferences. However, the results from the original

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<v Speaker 1>study were only correlational. They didn't explicitly explain what causes

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<v Speaker 1>someone to like a certain color or why that would

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<v Speaker 1>change over time. Time for a different test, a, Schlas said,

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<v Speaker 1>the idea is that if we bring to mind for

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<v Speaker 1>you particular objects that are say positive and associated a

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<v Speaker 1>particular color or negative, we should be able to change

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<v Speaker 1>your color preferences over the course of even a laboratory experiment.

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<v Speaker 1>And to test this, they presented participants with objects associated

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<v Speaker 1>with the colors red and green. One group saw positive

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<v Speaker 1>red images like strawberries and roses, but also negative green

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<v Speaker 1>images like vomit and mucus. The second group saw the

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<v Speaker 1>opposite and negative red images such as lesions and positive

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<v Speaker 1>green images like forests and Kiwi's Shlas explained, what we

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<v Speaker 1>found is that we were able to significantly increase people's

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<v Speaker 1>preferences for the colors that were associated with the positive

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<v Speaker 1>things they saw. If you saw positive red things, you

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<v Speaker 1>could significantly increase your preference for the red colors. Then

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<v Speaker 1>if you saw positive green things. Of course, positive and

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<v Speaker 1>negative reactions aren't universal. Even though many people probably find

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<v Speaker 1>red lesions to be gross, if a participant was pre med,

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<v Speaker 1>for example, they might find red legions fascinating. And so

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<v Speaker 1>the researchers next step was to see if they could

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<v Speaker 1>predict how much a person's preference would change based on

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<v Speaker 1>how much the person liked the images they saw. It

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<v Speaker 1>turns out they could. Slaw said, if you activate the

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<v Speaker 1>associations of particular objects, that can have a larger influence

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<v Speaker 1>on your preference for the color. By activating, she means

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<v Speaker 1>reminding you that an object exists, basically bringing it to

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<v Speaker 1>the top of your mind. She continued, those objects are

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<v Speaker 1>going to have more weight than the ones that I

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<v Speaker 1>didn't activate. So if participants saw more positive images of

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<v Speaker 1>red things, whatever those things were, they were more likely

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<v Speaker 1>to have a positive association with the color red. This

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<v Speaker 1>explains why a person may have This explains why a

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<v Speaker 1>person may have paus of or negative feelings about certain colors.

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<v Speaker 1>It comes down to your experience with objects of those

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<v Speaker 1>colors over time and This may explain why yellowish, greenish colors,

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<v Speaker 1>the colors of things like puss and vomit, are the

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<v Speaker 1>least like across the world. According to Schlass, while blue

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<v Speaker 1>hues are the most popular, blue is nearly always associated

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<v Speaker 1>with universally positive things. In fact, in Schloss's studies, blue

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<v Speaker 1>was the only color for which participants never listed a

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<v Speaker 1>negative object. Scientists like Schlass have explored the idea that

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<v Speaker 1>color preference may be part of our evolutionary design. She said.

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<v Speaker 1>The idea is the color preferences act as a steering

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<v Speaker 1>function that guides us towards things that are positive for

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<v Speaker 1>our general health and well being and away from things

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<v Speaker 1>that are negative. We have this learning mechanism to learn

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<v Speaker 1>associations between colors and objects or concepts, and then use

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<v Speaker 1>those to inform our judgments about colors. This could have

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<v Speaker 1>been something that may have been adaptive for us to have. However,

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<v Speaker 1>she points out that objects don't always have a rhyme

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<v Speaker 1>or reason for their color, and in our relatively safe

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<v Speaker 1>and curated world, it's often not a life or death

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<v Speaker 1>preference for humans today, our choosing a color we like,

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<v Speaker 1>for say, our love seat or cell phone case, may

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<v Speaker 1>help us thrive, that is, be happy, and avoiding colors

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<v Speaker 1>we dislike may help us avoid failure that is being unhappy,

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<v Speaker 1>And even in that small way, the simple question what's

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<v Speaker 1>your favorite color? May have more depth than we previously thought.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article science Explains Why

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<v Speaker 1>we have favorite colors on how stuff works dot com,

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<v Speaker 1>written by Alison Troutner. Brain Stuff is production by Heart

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<v Speaker 1>Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com and

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<v Speaker 1>is produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts by heart Radio,

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