Blogs3,454 Entries

It's scientific fact: girls love pink

August 21, 2007

But it's nothing you should worry your pretty little head about - it's evolution and your love of ruddy-faced chaps, sweetheart. Two Newcastle University researchers have 'proved' that girls have a preference for pink (and boys love blue).

So all those pink laptops, phones and GPS devices are not patronising at all. In fact, they're simply giving the beautiful ladies what they want. Ahem.

Anya C Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling of Newcastle University's Institute of Neuroscience and School of Biology and Psychology asked 208 young males and females to select as quickly as possible their colour of choice from coloured rectangles.

In general respondents preferred blue. But when asked to select from a spectrum ranging from red through blue and green to yellow, women came down in favour of red.

And through the magic of science this means that girls like pink. Eh? I'll let Hurlbert explain: "This shifts their colour preference slightly away from blue towards red, which tends to make pinks and lilacs the most preferred colours."

Okay... I can sort of get on board so far. But is this nature or nurture? I mean, the women tested may prefer pink precisely because ever since they grew out of their pink bedroom, they've had the likes of Dell and Lenovo thrusting pink laptops their way. (And since when was 208 a reasonable sample number anyway?)

Hurlbert takes the scientist's view of her results - the kind of scientist who draws a 30ft dinosaur based on a 6in bone fragment, granted, but a scientist nonetheless: "Evolution may have driven females to prefer reddish colours - reddish, ripe fruits, healthy, reddish faces."

So there you have it ladies. You desire that pink mobile phone because you love to make meals for wheezing, red-faced City bankers. It's science, innit? Bonkers science.

Posted by: Matt Egan

What is this?

<<newer entry  |  older entry>>

Comments

Posted by simonjary on August 21, 2007 :

From Wikipedia: "Despite being widely considered the color of females, before the 1930s, pink was considered to be a color for boys in America. Because pink is a watered down version of red, it was considered a color of power and strength, as red is still today. Blue was for girls."

Posted by Sue Bitpou on August 22, 2007 :

More poppycock!

Posted by Mary on August 22, 2007 :

Pink? Ugh. I despise pink. And for what it's worth, I don't like baby blue, either. My tastes run mainly to green and yellow, though I like deep blues (like cobalt blue) and any green-blues as long as they're not pastels.

I can't understand how so many females like pink--it's a pretty ugly color to me. Scientific or not, I guess I fall into a minority.

Posted by emz on August 28, 2007 :

well i dont like pink so i must be in the minority of women too..
red and pink may be at similar ends of the spectrum, but they are not the same colour. I am sorry but i prefer blue so how do the scientists explain that?

PC Advisor staff
Blogger Daily news, views and thoughts from the PC Advisor staff as they put together the magazine. Collectively the PC Advisor team has over 100 years of computing experience, so as you'll imagine they're never short of an opinion or two.
Email author(s)

Latest entries


Entries by month

Feb10  |  Jan10  |  Dec09  |  Nov09
Oct09  |  Sep09  |  Aug09  |  Jul09
Jun09  |  May09  |  Apr09  |  Mar09
Feb09  |  Jan09  |  Dec08  |  Nov08
Oct08  |  Sep08  |  Aug08  |  Jul08
Jun08  |  May08  |  Apr08  |  Mar08
Feb08  |  Jan08  |  Dec07  |  Nov07
Oct07  |  Sep07  |  Aug07  |  Jul07
Jun07  |  May07  |  Apr07  |  Mar07
Feb07  |  Jan07  |  Dec06  |  Nov06
Oct06  |  Sep06  |  Aug06  |  Jul06
Jun06  |  May06  |  Apr06  |  Mar06
Feb06  |  Jan06  |  Dec05  |  Nov05
Oct05  

Google

Search blogs


Other blogs


 Our RSS feeds

Sponsored Content

  • Take the internet to new places with the Nokia N800
    Communicate how you want to, where you want to with instant messaging, email and internet calling. View movies, browse the internet wirelessly and watch TV on the high-resolution screen and listen through high-quality stereo speakers with headphone jack.
    Buy now