THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RED. 373 



that among 100 women students at Wellesley College the order of 

 preference was not very different, being blue (38 per cent), red (18 per 

 cent), yellow, green, violet; in a later investigation the order remained 

 the same, there being only some increase in the preference for red; it 

 was considered that association accounted for the preference for blue, 

 while more conscious as well as more emotional elements entered into 

 the preference for red. 



By far the most extensive investigation of color preferenee was that 

 carried on at Chicago by Professor Jastrow on 4,500 persons, mostly 

 adults, of both sexes and various nationalities.* Blue was found to be 

 the favorite color, less than half as many persons preferring red; of 

 every thirty men ten voted for blue and three for red, while of every 

 thirty women five voted for red and four for blue. The men also liked 

 violet and on the whole confined their choice to but few colors, the 

 women also liked pink, green (very seldom chosen by men) and yellow, 

 and showed a tendency to choose light and dainty shades. There was 

 on the whole a decided preference for dark shades; the least favorite 

 colors were yellow and orange. It is evident that, as we should expect, 

 within the elementary field of popular esthetics, women show a more 

 trained feeling for color than men. 



It is not quite easy to coordinate the various phenomena of color 

 predilection. Careful and extended observations are still required. It 

 seems to me, however, that the facts, as at present ascertained, do 

 suggest a certain order and harmony in the phenomena. It is difficult 

 not to believe that there really is, both among many uncivilized peoples 

 and also many children at an early age, even to a slight extent among 

 civilized adults, a relative inability, by no means usually absolute, to 

 recognize and distinguish the tones of color at the more refrangible end 

 of the spectrum. The earliest writers on the subject were wrong when 

 they supposed that color nomenclature at all accurately corresponded 

 to color perception, and it is well recognized that there are no peoples 

 who are wholly unable to distinguish between green and blue and black. 

 But as Garbini has clearly shown, there really is a parallelism between 

 color nomenclature and color recognition, and Garbini's wide investiga- 

 tion has confirmed the experiments of Preyer on a single child by show- 

 ing that there is a certain hesitancy and uncertainty in recognizing the 

 colors at the more refrangible end of the spectrum, long after children 

 are familiar with the less refrangible end. In the same way the im- 

 portant investigations of Eivers have confirmed the earlier observa- 

 tions of Magnus and Almquist in showing that savages in many cases 

 exhibit a certain difficulty in recognizing and distinguishing blue and 

 green, such as they never experience with red and yellow. The vague- 



*J. Jastrow, "The Popular ^Esthetics of Color," Popular Science Monthly, 1897. 



