Girls prefer pink | Key4Communications | News

There is much controversy surrounding the two classic colours for children: blue for boys and pink for girls, that for a long time have been the dominant in products for babies and children. The choice of these colors was believed to be conventional, but a study by the University of Newcastle shows that biology could have a part in this preference.

For this research, young adult men and women were asked to select, as rapidly as possible, their preferred colour from each of a series of paired, coloured rectangles. The test showed that the favourite colour for the majority of the people is blue, but in the case of women there was a tendency to redder shades of blue, going towards the area of pinks and lilacs. In contrast, men had a preference for greener blues.

To avoid cultural trends, the research included a group of Chinese citizens, who showed similar trends, but with a more general predilection to red tones, as red brings good luck in China.

According to the authors of the study, this preference for red, pink and lilac of women could come from the era in which humans were hunters and gatherers. By then, women were in charge of collecting fruits, so they could have developed a better ability to detect ripe fruits.

The universal preference for blue could have similar reasons: during the period in which we lived in the savannah, a blue sky would be a clear signal of good weather conditions. Also, a clear blue colour would be associated with good sources of water.