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Mandatory XKCD link here https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ This isn't just a comic
by xhedley 10y ago
Mandatory XKCD link here
https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/
This isn't just a comic - Randall Munroe ran a color naming survey on internet users. Native language was not collected. I assume native English speakers were over-represented but not universal.
Interestingly there was a slight gender difference in naming among respondents (see the second table). Is that perceptual or a cultural gender-specific difference in how often men or women talk about color?
- jedberg 10y ago> Is that perceptual or a cultural gender-specific difference It's perceptual. Women have a higher cone to rod ratio, making them see colors easier while men see movement better. Also women are more likely to be tetracromats (four different cones instead of three). There are some unproven evolutionary reasons that this may be the case -- men needed better movement detection to hunt while women needed better color vision to detect bad food when gathering.
- pluma 10y agoAlso colour blindness is sexist (1 in 12 men vs 1 in 200 women has colour vision deficiency). There are some anecdotes that colourblind sharpshooters find it easier to see through camouflage as they're more sensitive to shapes (i.e. because for them a lot of things are "naturally camouflaged" they have more experience detecting shapes) but I'm not sure how factual they are. I'd say the 1 in 12 vs 1 in 200 difference alone might account for a significant difference when looking at a uniform sample of both sexes.