gender coding

From birth people color code themselves according to gender, blue for boys, pink for girls. Two neuroscientists from Newcastle University in Great Britain created an experiment to discover if and/or why color preferences among men and women differ. The journal Current Biology published their findings in the Aug. 21, 2007, issue. In the experiment subjects were shown two rectangles of different colors on a screen. Participants were to quickly choose which rectangle they preferred, and then the computer moved on to another set of rectangles. The findings from the experiment showed that men and women both preferred blue out of this set of basic colors. Next a series of mixed colors were show. Women tended to prefer colors that were in the red end of the spectrum while men tended toward the blue end. To support the idea that color bias is more inherent than culturally learned, the experiment was split between chines and british participants. The color tendencies of both groups were the same.

The scientists suggest further that the preference comes from the role assigned to ancient women in pre-agricultural hunter/gathering societies. Women tended to forage while men hunted. The idea being that women associated the color red of fruits and berries etc with positive rewards, i.e. the respect of the group and food. While blue was postitive for both men and women, signifying water and good weather. Other studies have indicated as well that a woman's eyes are also physically composed to see reds better than other colors.

On the other hand, until the 1920s, Western children wore white and both genders wore dresses. In the 1920s color coding children began, except girls wore blue and boys wore pink. This reversed in the 40s to what know today, suggesting that color bias is more a result of cultural influence than nature.

Regardless, color coding gender plays a large psychological role in child development. Children become aware of gender around age two and from this follows a strong need to identify with one's own gender. The often extreme adoption of cultural gender colors fills this role.