5 ms·

There is a famous if possibly apocryphal study where random people were asked to rate various toaster colors, and everybody swooned over lime green and hot pink

There is a famous if possibly apocryphal study where random people were asked to rate various toaster colors, and everybody swooned over lime green and hot pink and whatnot. After they finished, they were told that as their prize they could take one of the toasters home -- and everybody chose white, stainless steel or black.

AmericanChopper 4y ago
The reason for that seems obvious to me. Grey, steel, white and black will work in basically every kitchen. If you want a more colorful pallet in any room in your house, then you need to put a lot more thought into planning it. I think most people aren’t highly motivated to do that.
- junga 4y ago
  > I think most people aren’t highly motivated to do that. But they were in the past? I don't know but I wonder why this might have changed.
  - somebodythere 4y ago
    No, I think people in the past probably just had a weaker preference for designs that go together in color and style.
    - towaway15463 4y ago
      That seems unlikely. Look at fashion and decor magazines from the past and you see lots of lively colours that are coordinated. If you go house hunting and see a couple houses that haven’t been updated for decades they have a definite palette.
      - lukeramsden 4y ago
        Could possibly be because most households nowadays have to be dual-income, and so there's not a dedicated homemaker with the motivation to do that.
        datavirtue 4y ago
        Sad, like the "colors."
      - Kye 4y ago
        Magazines are a reflection of a narrow slice of reality, usually the slice that could afford to buy the stuff advertised in magazines. Anyone can buy a magazine and aspire to the lifestyles depicted, but most can only aspire.
      - watwut 4y ago
        What is in fashion or decor magazine and what people actually have in home or wear are two different things.
    - corrral 4y ago
      I think this is part of it. I don't think people (in real life, not in magazines) cared as much whether something "went with" the rest of the room. Like, I'm sure some people did, but it wasn't a normal thing for middle class folks to care much about, as far as trying to make their own house look that way. There's, relatedly, probably some effect from all those home makeover & house-buying shows, which constantly push "any 'weird' color is bad, and any room without great color coordination is bad, and it's not OK not to mind it". There's a Mitchell and Webb sketch about this, in which two home-buyers on such a show are presented a bathroom with avocado fixtures, and the host berates them over multiple takes because their initial reaction isn't as negative as it ought to be. Fiction, but there's definitely a kind of same-ness to people's reactions to any but a few acceptable colors on those shows.
  - leereeves 4y ago
    I think people in the past spent less time looking at a screen and had other hobbies (like interior decorating) instead.
    - hackernewds 4y ago
      Seems like a stretch that using screens has led to a decline in interior decorating. You could argue a whole generation including men are now devolved into desk setups, plants, terrariums, "earthy colors", hygge, woodworking, aesthetics, etc through Pinterest, Instagram, etc. The same revolution has happened for the glorification of cooks -> chefs and the proliferation of home bakers
    - Macha 4y ago
      Alternatively, people in the past had fewer possesions (not out of virtuous minimialism as some people portray, but sheer economic reality), and so had more time to consider how each would fit in.
- stonemetal12 4y ago
  >Grey, steel, white and black will work in basically every kitchen. I don't understand that argument. My toaster only needs to work in my kitchen, not every kitchen. From a manufacture's point of view I get it. It is cheaper to produce 3 colors than 54.
  - rockbruno 4y ago
    They're talking about a design perspective. People like the lime green toaster because it by itself looks nice, but if they placed it in _their_ kitchen, it would probably look absolutely ridiculous unless they're designers and know how to perfectly balance such a strong color in the room. In contrast, neutral colors will look good in any color palette and require zero design talent from your side.
  - solumunus 4y ago
    We're talking about the context of this "study". If people are asked which toaster they want to take home, the vast majority of them will have a kitchen where "grey, steel, white or black" works the best, even if they prefer another color. They're not going to redesign their entire kitchen for a particular toaster.
- nereye 4y ago
  Would normally try to resist but, just as FYI, from https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/30/palate-palette-pallet/ https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/30/palate-palette-pallet/: palate / palette / pallet Your “palate” is the roof of your mouth, and by extension, your sense of taste. A “palette” is the flat board an artist mixes paint on (or by extension, a range of colors). A “pallet” is either a bed (now rare) or a flat platform onto which goods are loaded.
  - AmericanChopper 4y ago
    Thanks. Good language correcting.
avar 4y ago
- maest 4y ago
  GP clearly meant the gray colour common for stainless steel objects: https://im01.itaiwantrade.com/f741c34e-0130-464b-a4d0-1607a2c5ccc0/stainless_mirror_tubes.jpg https://im01.itaiwantrade.com/f741c34e-0130-464b-a4d0-1607a2...
  - avar 4y ago
    Stainless steel as darker than that, and typically "brushed". That's chrome. In any case, many people might have a vague idea that stainless steel is more durable, but not be able to tell the difference between stainless steel, chrome painted hard plastic, or galvanized steel. I wonder if the study accounted for that.
    - pessimizer 4y ago
      Somebody actually flag-killed you for saying stainless steel wasn't a color. I think you're making a really good point. If there was an obvious durability difference between toasters (plastic vs. stainless steel), I'd take the steel one even if I liked the cherry red one better. If the red one I preferred were also steel, then that would be the question this experiment intends to examine (I'd be choosing on color.) Colorful shit is often cheap shit. edit: You can get plastic stuff "stainless steel color" by plating it with a thin foil, but then I'm definitely going for one of the colorful, dyed plastics, because that stuff is going to flake off.
- esrauch 4y ago
  They obviously mean "natural" stainless steel finish. The name of the color would be silver, but silver color is a wider range of colors, silver is also confusingly just the name of a metal which it is not, and also would include "silver paint on top of stainless steel".
- BrandoElFollito 4y ago
  If you want to be pedantic, there is no such thing as a "color". There are light waves with a frequency that hit a highly non-linear detector (our eye) and what comes from that is analyzed by your brain to put a label such as "red". What you see is different from what I see (not to mention that I am a daltonist) - and none of these are standardized. We are used to colors and this is why we label them. So "chrome" is absolutely a color, like "salmon" and "fuschia" is, or "gold" or "brownish"
antman 4y ago
One could argue that those are two different questions. E.g. what would look nice on itself vs what would look good in your kitchen or might be more timeless
anothernewdude 4y ago
My toaster is cherry red.
stonemetal12 4y ago
If I had to guess it was short term vs long term color preference, and focus preference. Lime green is nice when it is short lived, but lime green isn't as nice in year 25, after your tastes have changed. Hot pink is very eye catching, so it got the votes. On the other hand hot pink is very eye catching, who wants their toaster to be the center of attention?
jkqwzsoo 4y ago
I remember reading a feature/native advertisement about Lenovo's ThinkPad focus groups a while back (I think on Ars or The Verge) that had a similar conclusion. People would go crazy over a red or white ThinkPad in focus groups, but would never buy one because they couldn't see themselves as "that person" with the red laptop at a meeting. Lenovo did make both a red and white x100e a long while ago, but those were more like netbooks.
- BeFlatXIII 4y ago
  I am "that person" and am quite disappointed that I can't own a lime green MacBook Air.
  - fariszr 4y ago
    I mean, skins exist!
    - BeFlatXIII 4y ago
      Then it's fatter and heavier and I may as well have gotten the 14" Pro. Macs aren't like iPhones that constantly fall out of your pocket and need the extra padding.
      - fariszr 4y ago
        Skins are fairly slim, so I'm not sure its going to be noticable.
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  That's really interesting to read about (and the comment above); I hope that the people running these things know this is a thing too. It adds up too. Companies like Apple have long advertised with a diverse range of colors for their devices, but I think most people settle on black / white in the end because it's more neutral / doesn't stand out. At some point people had trouble distinguishing their grey macbook pro from the hundred other macbook pros. First that was resolved with full size sticker and covers (which were cute in that they used the illuminated apple logo on the back as a feature), then with... a very wild and colorful range of stickers they save up from conferences and the like. It was an interesting thing to witness, having big groups of people with bland, uniform, sleek and neutral, to a very nerdy form of self-expression and standing out from the crowd.

AmericanChopper 4y ago

The reason for that seems obvious to me. Grey, steel, white and black will work in basically every kitchen. If you want a more colorful pallet in any room in your house, then you need to put a lot more thought into planning it. I think most people aren’t highly motivated to do that.

junga 4y ago
> I think most people aren’t highly motivated to do that. But they were in the past? I don't know but I wonder why this might have changed.
- somebodythere 4y ago
  No, I think people in the past probably just had a weaker preference for designs that go together in color and style.
  - towaway15463 4y ago
    That seems unlikely. Look at fashion and decor magazines from the past and you see lots of lively colours that are coordinated. If you go house hunting and see a couple houses that haven’t been updated for decades they have a definite palette.
    - lukeramsden 4y ago
      Could possibly be because most households nowadays have to be dual-income, and so there's not a dedicated homemaker with the motivation to do that.
      - datavirtue 4y ago
        Sad, like the "colors."
    - Kye 4y ago
      Magazines are a reflection of a narrow slice of reality, usually the slice that could afford to buy the stuff advertised in magazines. Anyone can buy a magazine and aspire to the lifestyles depicted, but most can only aspire.
    - watwut 4y ago
      What is in fashion or decor magazine and what people actually have in home or wear are two different things.
  - corrral 4y ago
    I think this is part of it. I don't think people (in real life, not in magazines) cared as much whether something "went with" the rest of the room. Like, I'm sure some people did, but it wasn't a normal thing for middle class folks to care much about, as far as trying to make their own house look that way. There's, relatedly, probably some effect from all those home makeover & house-buying shows, which constantly push "any 'weird' color is bad, and any room without great color coordination is bad, and it's not OK not to mind it". There's a Mitchell and Webb sketch about this, in which two home-buyers on such a show are presented a bathroom with avocado fixtures, and the host berates them over multiple takes because their initial reaction isn't as negative as it ought to be. Fiction, but there's definitely a kind of same-ness to people's reactions to any but a few acceptable colors on those shows.
- leereeves 4y ago
  I think people in the past spent less time looking at a screen and had other hobbies (like interior decorating) instead.
  - hackernewds 4y ago
    Seems like a stretch that using screens has led to a decline in interior decorating. You could argue a whole generation including men are now devolved into desk setups, plants, terrariums, "earthy colors", hygge, woodworking, aesthetics, etc through Pinterest, Instagram, etc. The same revolution has happened for the glorification of cooks -> chefs and the proliferation of home bakers
  - Macha 4y ago
    Alternatively, people in the past had fewer possesions (not out of virtuous minimialism as some people portray, but sheer economic reality), and so had more time to consider how each would fit in.
stonemetal12 4y ago
>Grey, steel, white and black will work in basically every kitchen. I don't understand that argument. My toaster only needs to work in my kitchen, not every kitchen. From a manufacture's point of view I get it. It is cheaper to produce 3 colors than 54.
- rockbruno 4y ago
  They're talking about a design perspective. People like the lime green toaster because it by itself looks nice, but if they placed it in _their_ kitchen, it would probably look absolutely ridiculous unless they're designers and know how to perfectly balance such a strong color in the room. In contrast, neutral colors will look good in any color palette and require zero design talent from your side.
- solumunus 4y ago
  We're talking about the context of this "study". If people are asked which toaster they want to take home, the vast majority of them will have a kitchen where "grey, steel, white or black" works the best, even if they prefer another color. They're not going to redesign their entire kitchen for a particular toaster.
nereye 4y ago
Would normally try to resist but, just as FYI, from https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/30/palate-palette-pallet/ https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/30/palate-palette-pallet/: palate / palette / pallet Your “palate” is the roof of your mouth, and by extension, your sense of taste. A “palette” is the flat board an artist mixes paint on (or by extension, a range of colors). A “pallet” is either a bed (now rare) or a flat platform onto which goods are loaded.
- AmericanChopper 4y ago
  Thanks. Good language correcting.

avar 4y ago

maest 4y ago
GP clearly meant the gray colour common for stainless steel objects: https://im01.itaiwantrade.com/f741c34e-0130-464b-a4d0-1607a2c5ccc0/stainless_mirror_tubes.jpg https://im01.itaiwantrade.com/f741c34e-0130-464b-a4d0-1607a2...
- avar 4y ago
  Stainless steel as darker than that, and typically "brushed". That's chrome. In any case, many people might have a vague idea that stainless steel is more durable, but not be able to tell the difference between stainless steel, chrome painted hard plastic, or galvanized steel. I wonder if the study accounted for that.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    Somebody actually flag-killed you for saying stainless steel wasn't a color. I think you're making a really good point. If there was an obvious durability difference between toasters (plastic vs. stainless steel), I'd take the steel one even if I liked the cherry red one better. If the red one I preferred were also steel, then that would be the question this experiment intends to examine (I'd be choosing on color.) Colorful shit is often cheap shit. edit: You can get plastic stuff "stainless steel color" by plating it with a thin foil, but then I'm definitely going for one of the colorful, dyed plastics, because that stuff is going to flake off.
esrauch 4y ago
They obviously mean "natural" stainless steel finish. The name of the color would be silver, but silver color is a wider range of colors, silver is also confusingly just the name of a metal which it is not, and also would include "silver paint on top of stainless steel".
BrandoElFollito 4y ago
If you want to be pedantic, there is no such thing as a "color". There are light waves with a frequency that hit a highly non-linear detector (our eye) and what comes from that is analyzed by your brain to put a label such as "red". What you see is different from what I see (not to mention that I am a daltonist) - and none of these are standardized. We are used to colors and this is why we label them. So "chrome" is absolutely a color, like "salmon" and "fuschia" is, or "gold" or "brownish"

antman 4y ago

One could argue that those are two different questions. E.g. what would look nice on itself vs what would look good in your kitchen or might be more timeless

anothernewdude 4y ago

My toaster is cherry red.

stonemetal12 4y ago

If I had to guess it was short term vs long term color preference, and focus preference. Lime green is nice when it is short lived, but lime green isn't as nice in year 25, after your tastes have changed. Hot pink is very eye catching, so it got the votes. On the other hand hot pink is very eye catching, who wants their toaster to be the center of attention?

jkqwzsoo 4y ago

I remember reading a feature/native advertisement about Lenovo's ThinkPad focus groups a while back (I think on Ars or The Verge) that had a similar conclusion. People would go crazy over a red or white ThinkPad in focus groups, but would never buy one because they couldn't see themselves as "that person" with the red laptop at a meeting. Lenovo did make both a red and white x100e a long while ago, but those were more like netbooks.

BeFlatXIII 4y ago
I am "that person" and am quite disappointed that I can't own a lime green MacBook Air.
- fariszr 4y ago
  I mean, skins exist!
  - BeFlatXIII 4y ago
    Then it's fatter and heavier and I may as well have gotten the 14" Pro. Macs aren't like iPhones that constantly fall out of your pocket and need the extra padding.
    - fariszr 4y ago
      Skins are fairly slim, so I'm not sure its going to be noticable.
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
That's really interesting to read about (and the comment above); I hope that the people running these things know this is a thing too. It adds up too. Companies like Apple have long advertised with a diverse range of colors for their devices, but I think most people settle on black / white in the end because it's more neutral / doesn't stand out. At some point people had trouble distinguishing their grey macbook pro from the hundred other macbook pros. First that was resolved with full size sticker and covers (which were cute in that they used the illuminated apple logo on the back as a feature), then with... a very wild and colorful range of stickers they save up from conferences and the like. It was an interesting thing to witness, having big groups of people with bland, uniform, sleek and neutral, to a very nerdy form of self-expression and standing out from the crowd.