364 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Our first interest lies in determining what colors are the gen- 

 eral favorites. The first place is held by hlue, 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 

 ligJiter hlue, hlue 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 sig- 

 nificance of this result it may be noted that the four colors, hlue, 

 red, lighter hlue, and hlue violet, constitute just about half the en- 

 tire preferences ; or, again, if we divide the number of records into 

 four approximately equal parts, hhie would constitute the first 

 quarter ; red, lighter hlue, and hlue 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 darlier 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 re- 

 garded 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 con- 



1,810 (about two fifths) by women. Of these, only 3,043 (1,864 men and 1,1*79 women) 

 indicated both the preferences for the combination of colors as well as for the single color, 

 and only 2,594 (1,548 men and 1,046 women) recorded their ages. These numbers are 

 suggestive, as indicating that, of all those sufficiently interested to stop and select a color, 

 only Jiff y-seven per cent were careful to follow the entire directions, while just about two 

 thirds did as requested, except that they did not record the age. In all these respects the 

 women are no more nor no less accurate ihan the men. 



The ages of the voters cover a wide range, from six to seventy years. The age best 

 represented occurs at about twenty-two years. One half of all the voters are between 

 nineteen years and six months and thirty-five years of age, and two thirds of them would be 

 between seventeen and thirty-nine years old. The age distribution of the men and women 

 presents no significant difCeiences. 



