What Does Your Car’s Color Say About You?

For starters, there is a strong possibility that your favorite car color gives away your gender.

A new report from iSeeCars.com reveals that men and women prefer different color cars.

Can you believe that men are more likely to search for red, orange, black, white, green and gray cars while woman opt for silver, brown, gold, beige, blue and yellow vehicles?

Men and Women Prefer Different Color Cars

According to the search and compare car website, these trends were exposed after studying search inquiries over a 12 month timespan. The site reports “hundreds of thousands of consumers” consult iSeeCars.com for information about new and used cars, but did not include the exact number of men and women who participated in this study.

Nevertheless, the statistics are compelling. Here is the list of male preferred vehicle colors and the likeliness of men searching for these cars over women:

• MEN are 3 percent more likely to search for RED cars
• MEN are 8 percent more likely to search for ORANGE cars
• MEN are 6 percent more likely to search for BLACK cars
• MEN are 0 percent more likely to search for WHITE cars
• MEN are 8 percent more likely to search for GREEN cars
• MEN are 0 percent more likely to search for GRAY cars

Women, on the other hand, seem to prefer completely different car colors.

• WOMEN are 2 percent more likely to search for SILVER cars
• WOMEN are 1 percent more likely to search for BROWN cars
• WOMEN are 3 percent more likely to search for GOLD cars
• WOMEN are 7 percent more likely to search for BEIGE cars
• WOMEN are 6 percent more likely to search for BLUE cars
• WOMEN are 2 percent more likely to search for YELLOW cars

Why Do Men and Women Prefer Different Car Colors?

iSeeCars.com has some hypotheses about why, according to this report, men and women prefer different color cars. For instance, red, black and orange are popular colors for sports cars. All the while, white is the most popular shade for pickup trucks.

Similarly, silver, brown, gold and beige are often seen on minivans, sedans and station wagons – if at all. In the report, iSeeCars.com states that “Brown and gold/beige are not common car colors – only making up about 4 percent of the 30 million used car listings.” And even though women prefer blue cars 3.6 percent more than men, the most popular blue car is a minivan.

Therefore, it appears men are looking for sports cars and pickup trucks while women search for dependable family vehicles.

Further research could be done on this subject, but for now, it is interesting to read what one search and compare car website found when designating searches by gender. More so, it brings up an age-old question: “what does your car say about you?”

Read more Segmation blog posts about color theory:

Wacky and Wonderful Art Cars www.segmation.com

Vehicle Safety and Car Color

Why Are School Buses Yellow?

Be a Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

Join us on SegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iPad

www.segmation.com

Advertisement

Blue is for Boys, Pink is for Girls

Many expecting parents are going with a new trend; they are painting nurseries neutral colors. Are people trying to get away from common childhood stereotypes? Whoever said blue is for boys and pink is for girls?

Even though it is true today, color has not always perceived this way. Before the middle of the 20^th century, children were not assigned gender specific colors. In fact, there is a lot of debate about the masculinity of the color pink; how some of the world’s most honorable men wore dresses; and what colors really attribute to males and females.

Is the pendulum swinging back to center? Are neutral-colored parents taking a stance against societal norms? Or is this saying true: blue is for boys and pink is for girls?

The Masculine Color Pink

Pink can be seen in the men’s sections of most clothing stores – even if it is not always referred to as pink. Some men opt to call it, “salmon.” Regardless of title, the point is this: a lot of men look good in this color.

Back in the day, pink was not seen as a “dainty” color or overly feminine, as it is today. Actually, during World War II this color was used in military combat – and there is nothing feminine about war.  At one point, the British painted an entire militia of warships pink. They thought this hue would blend in at dusk. The tactic was used to confuse the Germans. Did it work?

Honorable Men Wore Dresses

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was two and a half years old, he was pictured wearing a long white dress with shiny black shoes and long curly hair. His mother was not mistaken about his gender – this look was appropriate for boys in the late 19^th century. In fact, during this era, it was appropriate for boys to wear dresses until the age of seven. White cotton dresses went well with white cloth diapers. They were functional and easy to clean.

Who’s Whose Color?

It was not until the middle of the 1900’s that blue and pink were attributed to boys and girls. Even then, it was said that pink was for boys and blue was for girls. This was stated in an article printed in the trade publication, Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department, in June of 1918.  

All this changed, however, in the 1940’s. After World War II, boys began dressing like their fathers, and girls like their mothers.

Gender specific colors go to show how inseparable colors are to the human psyche. Much of a person’s identity comes from the apparel he or she dons. Many children learn about their genders by the colors they wear and play with. But will blue always be for boys? And will pink forever be a girl’s color? Or will the pendulum swing again?

Image Credit: JEONGMEE YOON / BARCROFT

Do Men and Women See Colors Differently?

Have you ever wondered if men and women have visual differences? After all, we don’t always see eye to eye.

Now you can put curiosity to rest; one study shows people of opposing genders disagree on hues. This means men and women experience different color perspectives.

Nevertheless, with new information comes new questions like, why? What causes this inconsistency?

How do Men and Women See Colors Differently?

Men and women rarely see the same color hues. It is common for males to require a longer wavelength than females in order to experience similar shades of certain colors.

Warmer colors have longer wavelengths than cooler colors. This means that reds and oranges are likely to appear bolder and stronger to men. Women, on the other hand, tend to see vibrant green hues with clarity and precision.

Males are also known to be better at identifying colorful detail from a distance, while women excel at this when colors are closer. In general, men are more sensitive to colors too. Yet, women have the ability to easily differentiate between slight changes in color.

What Causes Visual Differences in Men and Women?

Realizing men and women have different visual perspectives is interesting, but learning why opposite genders experience colors in unique ways is enlightening. To uncover this mystery, it is necessary to consult evolutionary theories. Let’s return to a time when men and women were known as “hunters and gathers.”

In addition to identifying details from a distance, males have keen senses for detecting fast moving objects and flashing lights. Ultimately, requiring longer wavelengths that exist in warmer colors also increases man’s attention to “fine detail and rapidly moving stimuli.” All the while, females excel at distinguishing colors close at hand. This implies men are naturally good at hunting, and women are purposed for gathering objects like nuts and berries.

This research does not prove that one gender sees color better than the other. Rather, men and women have different visual strengths that were, at one time, used in tandem to provide sustenance for themselves and their communities.

Citing a number of tests and color experiments, this study reveals how men and women see the world in unique ways.

Explore more about this subject, and keep the information in mind next time you’re decorating.

Read more Segmation blog posts about Color Perspectives:

Light Creates Space, Color, Perception and Art

Perspectives on Color

Color Can Help You Understand Personality Types

Image made available by charles van L. on Flickr through Creative Common Licenses.

Image made available by Beshef on Flickr through Creative Common Licenses.

Be an Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

FREE Newsletter

Join us on FacebookSegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iPad

www.segmation.com

The Gender/Color Divide

How many colors can you see? It’s easy to start rattling them off, but after a couple dozen, you may find yourself struggling to keep the list going. In reality, most of us are trichromats, which means we have three standard cones in our retinas to detect blue, green, and red. From there, our brains can discern about 1 million different shades made up of those three primary colors.

While you’re still reeling from that number, consider this: studies have shown that a small percentage of women are tetrachromats — in addition to the standard three cones in their retinas, they have an extra fourth cone that allows them to pick up a total of 100 million shades! That’s a whole lot of Crayolas.

Interestingly, men don’t have the potential for this color-detecting superpower. That’s because the extra gene is found on the X chromosome, and men have only one of those. Since women have two X chromosomes, there’s a rare possibility (2-3%) that they’ll have two types of red cones on each one.

In many cases, tetrachromats may not even realize their heightened sensitivity to color variations — until someone else points it out.