Do genders see colors

differently?

AP Statistics
6th Period
William Kiker
Rowan Pruitt
Fall 2014
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Do Genders See Colors

Differently?
Stats in Action

I first got the idea for this project while arguing about the color of a friends pants; he

thought they were blue and I thought they were black, another female agreed with me. What was
first just stubbornness turned into a legitimate interest in whether there was an actual reason why
we were seeing the color of the pants differently. I know that everyone sees colors differently in
general but I wondered if it had something bigger to do with our gender. This interested me
because of how important graphics and colors can be to our emotional appeal and this has then
changed advertising and marketing in order to target one audience or gender. So going into the
experiment I expect to see that if given ambiguous colors then a male and a female would
identify them as two different colors like blue or black, with one gender determining it blue and
the other gender identifying it as black.

To sample for my experiment, I acquired a list of the enrolled Austin High students and

numbered them, before I strata-ed them based on gender. From there I used the random integer
function on my Ti-84 plus calculator selecting four-digit numbers from 1-(end number). I
repeated this process until I had a sample of 40 students made up of 20 males and 20 females. I
ignored any repeated numbers, numbers that fell out side of my parameters including 0. This
process of sampling allows for randomization as well as for an equal representation of males and
females in order to not effect results. This sample accounted for both randomization and

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replication based on the manner gathered and number of subjects. Then I was able to set up my
experiment.

The first thing I did after sampling was decide on the colors to use in the experiment. I

decided to use five ambiguous colors, the use of multiple colors instead of just one functions as a
control. The colors I decided on were a yellow-orange, a very dark navy, a teal, a periwinkle, and
a red-orange, see appendix A. I decided against using a distinct purple or green because they are
easy to identify. To do this I used Adobe Kuler, which allowed me to see colors on a color wheel
and change different amounts of colors in them. On the yellow-orange I could change how much
yellow to red, or white to yellow I wanted where as on the dark blue I could change how much
black I wanted in the color. This was the best way I hand select the colors I wanted. Then I
printed them out on a color corrected printer, so that the ink wouldnt change my color and
therefor my results. I changed the colors according to the way it was printed, specifically with the
navy blue because it was so close to black. Then the experiment began. I asked both the girls and
boys, What color is this, Option A or Option B? I will present them a multiple choice answer so
I dont get an answer I dont want, like gold our red-orange and can accurately determine if
there is a difference in responses. In addition, I will alternate which color I say first to keep it
from swaying a certain way based on what I thought the colors were because it was important to
the implementation of the experiment to not let the subjects think there was a correct color.

While conducting the experiment I realized there were two main lurking variables

including the light in the room where I asked the question and the background to which the color
was printed on, a white back ground and a grey back ground changed the way the color looked. I
cute out the colors, leaving a small white border to show the print color and to make it easier to
decide. I tried to conduct the experiment in a well lighted room but the tungsten light in the

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school building did have some effect on the colors. A third factor was the order in which I showed
the subjects the colors, if I a showed the subjects the yellow/orange before the orange/red it
changed what they thought orange was, so I changed the order in which I asked the questions to
not influence any responses.

I recorded the data in a spread sheet as I surveyed the subjects, instead of dealing with

slips, once done I put the data into a frequency table in order to make graphs, data tables shown
in appendix B. To conclude the survey process I got their signatures, given in appendix C. After
conducting the experiment, the data does not show a statistically significance difference between
what genders said. It only really appears when the subjects were asked Is this color blue or
purple? which had only two females saying purple and nine males saying blue, as seem in graph
one in appendix D, the other significant difference was when they were asked, Is it green or
blue? which had 13 females saying blue and nine males saying blue, as seen in graph two in
appendix D. Other than that the spread on responses was very similar with the question of
whether it was yellow or orange having the exact same numbers 6 males and females saying
yellow and 14 males and females saying orange, as seen in graph three in appendix D. These
results are displayed on segmented bar charts to show the spread of each genders responses, they
are split by what color they said to be more visually pleasing. The data in these graphs did not
support my hypothesis but it did show that people see colors differently based on the fact that all
the colors were said.

But everyone does perceive colors differently, there are other things that could effect this

experiment. For instance males have a larger tendency to be color blind than females do because
color blindness is a sex-linked condition dependent on photopigments which are carried on the
X chromosome, which females have one more of (Carlson). But generally it is thought that

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people see the same colors based on the natural way light it processed after it reaches the cells on
our eyes and the emotional responses to colors that are tied to our monoculture. So both the
chemical make up of the person and the environment theyve grown up in effect how one sees
various colors, explaining why it differs between genders.

Overall this experiment was very interesting and reinforced the idea that everyone does

perceive colors differently and that genders specifically can see colors differently. This was shown
based on both my experiment, other experiments and the research about the topic.

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Works Cited
Carlson, Neil R. (2007). Psychology: The Science of Behavior. New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education.
p.145.

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Appendix
Appendix A: Colors

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Appendix B: Data

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Appendix C: Signatures

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Appendix D: Graphs
Graph One
Is it Blue or Purple?
20

10

Female

Male

Specific Gender Responses

Said Blue

Said Purple

Graph Two

Is it Green or Blue?
20

15

Frequency

Frequency

15

10

Female Response

Male Response

Specific Gender Responses

Said Green

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Said Blue

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Graph Three
Is is Yellow or Orange?
20

Freqency

15

10

Female Responses
Said Yellow

Male Responses
Said Orange

Graph Four
Is it Red or Orange?
20

Frequency

15

10

Female Response

Male Response

Genders Specific Response

Said Orange

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Said Red

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Graph Five
Is it Black or Blue?
20

Frequency

15

10

Female Responses

Male Responses

Genders Responses
Said Black

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Said Blue

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