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Sex differences in color preferences transcend extreme differences in culture and ecology

Sex differences in color preferences transcend extreme differences in culture and ecology
Sex differences in color preferences transcend extreme differences in culture and ecology
At first glance, color preferences might seem to be the most subjective and context-dependent aspects of color cognition. Yet they are not. The present study compares color preferences of women and men from an industrialized and a remote, nonindustrialized culture. In particular, we investigated preferences in observers from Poland and from the Yali in Papua, respectively. Not surprisingly, we found that color preferences clearly differed between the two communities and also between sexes. However, despite the pronounced cultural differences, the way in which men and women differed from each other was almost the same in both cultures. At the same time, this sexual contrast was not specific to biological components of color vision. Our results reveal a pattern of sexual dimorphism that transcends extreme differences in culture and ecology. They point toward strong cross-cultural constraints beyond the biological predispositions of nature and the cultural particularities of nurture.
1069-9384
1195-1201
Sorokowski, Piotr
0eeccf0c-8a6e-4ece-b628-dd0d70ba056f
Sorokowska, Agnieszka
fc2bd344-33b4-4be2-adb0-e42f320c59a4
Witzel, Christoph
dfb994f1-7007-441a-9e1a-ddb167f44166
Sorokowski, Piotr
0eeccf0c-8a6e-4ece-b628-dd0d70ba056f
Sorokowska, Agnieszka
fc2bd344-33b4-4be2-adb0-e42f320c59a4
Witzel, Christoph
dfb994f1-7007-441a-9e1a-ddb167f44166

Sorokowski, Piotr, Sorokowska, Agnieszka and Witzel, Christoph (2014) Sex differences in color preferences transcend extreme differences in culture and ecology. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21 (5), 1195-1201. (doi:10.3758/s13423-014-0591-8).

Record type: Article

Abstract

At first glance, color preferences might seem to be the most subjective and context-dependent aspects of color cognition. Yet they are not. The present study compares color preferences of women and men from an industrialized and a remote, nonindustrialized culture. In particular, we investigated preferences in observers from Poland and from the Yali in Papua, respectively. Not surprisingly, we found that color preferences clearly differed between the two communities and also between sexes. However, despite the pronounced cultural differences, the way in which men and women differed from each other was almost the same in both cultures. At the same time, this sexual contrast was not specific to biological components of color vision. Our results reveal a pattern of sexual dimorphism that transcends extreme differences in culture and ecology. They point toward strong cross-cultural constraints beyond the biological predispositions of nature and the cultural particularities of nurture.

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Sorokowski et al. (2014) Sex differences in color preferences transcend extreme differences in culture and ecology (suppmat) - Other
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e-pub ahead of print date: 26 February 2014
Published date: October 2014

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 438216
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/438216
ISSN: 1069-9384
PURE UUID: fdb109c2-8330-441e-b4b6-73686eb77057
ORCID for Christoph Witzel: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9944-2420

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Date deposited: 04 Mar 2020 17:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:00

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Contributors

Author: Piotr Sorokowski
Author: Agnieszka Sorokowska

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