What is color? Who defines it? Where does it come from? As described in Sensation and Perception by E. Bruce Goldstein, “Color is one of the most obvious and pervasive qualities in our environment.” (Goldstein, pg. 202) We interact with color on a daily basis. It is what makes up the earth we live. As the days go by, there isn’t a day we don’t encounter color to some extent. We even choose our favorites!
We use color to describe the way we feel such as being blue, or green with feeling peaceful, the list goes on. We visualize and feel them. Colors server specific functions in our daily lives.
Understanding that color perception plays major roles in the lives of human beings, discovering the effects it has on gender gives us deeper reasoning to appreciate its importance. Previous research on vision and perception have dissected the impact of color perception in men versus women.
“‘Vision’ is the most important sense as about 80% information which we get through all the senses, is visual. This visual information becomes even more meaningful and informative when these are colorful. In fact colors not only provide the objective information about the world, it impinges on our psyche, attitude and feelings.” (Khouw, 2010) Understanding this gives us more insight on the importance of appreciating the value color simply adds. Color perception or vision is the ability of the eyes to discriminate between the light rays of different wavelengths. Our visual system distinguishes color by comparing the relative rates at which photons of light rays are absorbed in different classes of cones in retina exposed to bright light known as photopic vision. Interpretation of any color needs initial processing in the three cell layers of retina and then signals from different cone systems on reaching the brain are compared to be perceived.
Previous research has found there to be a difference in color perception in genders. “About 8% of men exhibit a hereditary deficiency of color perception but recently it was recognized that there are measurable differences in the color perception even amongst the people with normal color vision” (Khouw, 2010). Naturally, women display a higher appreciation of color and more likely to choose a favorite color versus a man. Is it something that is self-imposed or is biological? According to Goldstein, colors serve important signaling functions, both natural and contrived by human beings.
It starts at birth; the world is shaped around identifying gender with a color. Parents decorate girl nurseries in shades of pink, boy nurseries in shades of blue. It’s something we all do. As we grow, we choose colors based on preference, as we believe, but the reason may be linked with hormonal differences and environmental experiences among both sexes.
It is to be known women have a higher range in visualizing and perceiving color than men and that men have a higher rate of being color blind. More than 95% of all variations in human color vision involve the red-green receptors in men’s eyes. Bimler in his study suggested “relative differences in the salience of color-space axes, with the males tending to attend more to a lightness axis and less to a red-green axis. They are also less reliable in their judgments. This may be due to existence of photo pigment heterozygosis among females while males are homozygous, and gender differences in overall color awareness” (Bimler DL, Kirkland J, Jameson KA et al., 2004). Although women can be considered to be color blind, research shows red and green cones are more developed in women which ultimately allows their range of color perception to be higher than that of men. Red and green cones may be less developed in males therefore males prefer darker colors such as shades of black and blue
In conclusion, color perception represents a major adaptive advantage which has been given by evolutionary pathways. It is such an important mechanism of biological signaling, a source of information from the environment around us. “There are factors other than those related with physiological visual processes influencing such perception, which may be linked to the presence of estrogen receptors on the retina.”(Correa, Viviana, Estupinan, Lina, Garcia, Zioneth et al., 2007). This possibly allows women to identify shades of colors and combinations with many. Maybe it’s a compliment to women being great, or them being more appreciative of color, but in comparison to men, the range is higher. The colorful world is more beautiful to women.