Why We Like Different Colors

All of us have our favorite colors. When we meet, we often ask each other what our favorite color is and don’t even think about why different people prefer different hues.

5-Minute Crafts decided to find out why people like different colors.

Evolution

One of the possible explanations is the fact that, thanks to evolution, we prefer the colors our ancestors associated with survival, safety, and health. For example, adult people usually like blue rather than yellow or brown because blue is associated with water and a blue sky, and yellow or brown with diseases and decay.

Even babies prefer bright blue colors to brown ones.

Emotions

There’s an idea that we like certain colors because of certain positive emotions. For example, if you had a very happy event in your life and there was a lot of green around, there’s a chance you will like the green color.

But it can work vice versa too — there’s a color phobia called chromophobia (or chromatophobia), which is an irrational fear of or aversion to certain colors. In most cases, chromophobia is caused by a previous negative experience, but, fortunately, it’s a very rare condition.

Culture

Finally, the society we live in or grew up in plays a very important role in the formation of certain color preferences. In many cultures, different colors have different meanings. And they can change over time. For example, pink hasn’t always been a “feminine” color. In the 1920s, it was a color of masculinity.

In the west, black has a negative meaning, and white symbolizes purity. In China, red is the color of luck, and in Nigeria, it’s the other way around. Depending on these facts, we might have different color preferences.