366 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Before leaving this division of the subject one further con- 

 clusion may be indicated. This relates to the relative frequency 

 of the several colors in the color combinations. Such a compari- 

 son is possible only for the normal or primary colors and their 

 lighter shades, and is further hampered by the fact that the several 

 colors are not equally offered for selection in the color combina- 

 tions. A method of comparison making allowance for these points 

 yields the conclusion that, on the whole, the same colors are pre- 

 ferred and avoided in both the single colors and the color com- 

 binations. While the order of preference is measurably the same, 

 we find no such decided favorites as is blue among the single col- 

 ors, but that the several colors are much more uniformly repre- 

 sented. Red and blue and violet and lighter red are near the 

 head of both lists, and orange and lighter orange at the foot of 

 both. The most striking exception is lighter green, which is very 

 rarely chosen as a single favorite color, but appears frequently 

 in the color combinations. It may also be observed that on the 

 whole the lighter shades of the colors appear relatively more 

 frequently in the color combinations than in the single color 

 preferences, and that this is particularly the case for the women. 



The results of the comparison of color preferences for those 

 of various ages are somewhat meager. This is probably due to 

 the wide distribution of age here represented. It is probable that 

 the characteristics peculiar to certain ages could be best deter- 

 mined by recording the preferences of large groups of persons of 

 nearly the same age a form of investigation that is particularly 

 desirable among children, in whom changes of taste are going on 

 more rapidly than in older persons. For the purposes of com- 

 parison the ages were divided into five groups, the number of 

 records in each group being approximately the same. The groups 

 thus formed are for the youngest, eighteen years and below ; the 

 next, nineteen to twenty-four years ; the third, twenty-five to 

 thirty years ; the fourth, thirty-one to forty years; and the oldest, 

 forty- one years and above. The most noteworthy characteristic 

 of the color preferences of these groups is their general similarity ; 

 but there are four indications which are sufficiently marked to be 

 probably free from chance. These are, that blue is least selected 

 by the youngest group, about equally by the three middle groups, 

 and decidedly preferred by the oldest ; that violet is gradually 

 avoided as age increases ; that those who make most use of the 

 " no choice " column are between twenty-five and thirty years of 

 age ; and that lighter red is particularly preferred by those below 

 eighteen years of age. It is equally difficult to detect any marked 

 differences between the sexes respecting their color preferences at 

 different ages, but it is perhaps not accidental that in these re- 

 sults the liking for pinh {lighter red) is confined to young girls, 



