THE POPULAR AESTHETICS OF COLOR. 367 



and does not appear among boys, and that lighter violet is more 

 distinctly preferred by the older women than by the older men. 



The method of collecting these preferences, it will be recalled, 

 enables one to know the combinational color preferences of the 

 individuals who choose a given color as their favorite. It is 

 thus possible to study the correlation that may exist between the 

 choice of a single color and the choice of a color combination. It 

 will not be worth while to do this except for those colors that are 

 chosen by a relatively large number of individuals. Taking, for 

 example, those who choose blue as their favorite color, we find 

 what combination of colors these " blue-choosers " were most 

 prone to select, and so on for those who chose red, lighter blue, 

 blue violet, red violet, lighter red, violet, and green. The first 

 marked result of such a comparison is to show that the favorite 

 color is extremely apt to reappear in the combination of colors. 

 The evidence for this may be given in some detail. If we repre- 

 sent by 1 the proportionate choice of a combination having the 

 color blue in it in the general records, we find that the number 

 expressing how many of the "blue-choosers" would also choose 

 a combination in which blue occurred would be 2"17, or more than 

 twice as many as the general average. So for red it would be 

 1*87, for lighter blue 3'98, for lighter red 3"83, for violet 2"85, and 

 for green 4"44 ; or on an average 3*18, which means that a person 

 who has chosen any one of the above colors as his favorite color 

 is more than three times as likely to choose a combination in 

 which that same color appears as is the average chooser. It also 

 appears that the men obey this tendency slightly more than the 

 women.* 



Having found characteristic differences between the single 

 color preferences of the sexes, we are prepared to find them as 

 well in the preferences for color combinations. On the whole, the 

 order of preference of the combinations of colors for the men and 

 for the women is very much alike ; and when they difi:er it is fre- 

 quently doubtful, especially when the combination of colors is 

 rarely selected, whether such differences are accidental or not. 

 Of the masculine preferences those which seem most decided 



* Several other "correlation" conclusions maybe drawn, of which the following are 

 the most interesting : It appears that the men who are rather exceptional and choose a 

 color which is a common feminine favorite, and the women who select a typical masculine 

 color, are more apt than the more conforming choosers to retain this color in their color- 

 combination preferences ; it also appears that the tendency to retain this favorite color is 

 limited to the same shade of color and does not apply to a different shade of the same 

 color, and it further appears that those who select a favorite color which is selected by a 

 relatively large number of persons are more alike in their combination preferences i. e., 

 they confine their selections to a more limited range of color combinations than those 

 whose preferred color is not a popular favorite. 



