Genetics and favourite colour

[verdigris]

What determines why we say a certain colour is our favourite colour?
And do favourite colour choices run in families?

 

[Moridin]

I am never heard of a genetic predisposition for a certain color. Even if there is once, chances are that environmental and sociological factors play a major role in the process. For instance, a lot of people associate the colors of gems to be quite pretty and interesting. That could be a result of their rarity.

 

[LukeS]

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=colour+preference+innate&meta=" have innate colour preferences, but I woldn't say human's have though. I do believe that we MIGHT have an innate tendency to like the sparkling and luminuos, like jems the sun and stars, but I could be wrong. Maybe a desert Arab wouldn't be that keen on too much sunlight, but then again where do most cooler duller temperate zone Westerners holiday?

Oh yeah, and woodlice move towards dark damp places, then slow odwn or stop. Such movement is called orientation.

I 've heard that people from sunny climates tend to dress in brighter clothes. AS there is a common humanity underlying such a cultural choice, there might be an innate element in the behavioural product.

 

[Moridin]

I 've heard that people from sunny climates tend to dress in brighter clothes.

That is not necessarily true. In fact, it is cooler to dress in bulky dark cloths in warm climates than white. Even though it absorbs more heat, it also creates a larger cooling draft inside the cloths as the heated air rises. Of course, many undeveloped countries lies in hotter climate, so cloths are perhaps acquired based on availability and cost.

If humans would only go after what felt cooler, then we could dress in reflective metals. However, that is not common practice and cloths have become a cultural aspect of life. This type of cultural aspects of clothing is also very large.

A bit of topic, but what the hey :tongue2:

 

[jim mcnamara]

There have been extensive analysis of "separated identical" twins - twins raised apart but identified as indentical later on. The idea is that any similarities the twins exhibit in behaviors is more likely to have at least some basis in genetics. So-called concordance.

Anyway, one study I read umpteen years ago indicated no concordance for color. I've seen citations note culture as being a preeminent driving force in this area. For example, white is the color of mourning in some cultures, black in western cultures.

 

[verdigris]

JIM MCNAMARA said:
"Anyway, one study I read umpteen years ago indicated no concordance for color."

I would expect people to be fairly unbiased to colour genetically because
most environments we have to survive in have a wide mixture of colour and getting stressed by one colour in particular or spending time seeking one particular colour out could be expensive energetically and threaten survival.

 

[moe darklight]

If humans would only go after what felt cooler, then we could dress in reflective metals. However, that is not common practice and cloths have become a cultural aspect of life.

YOU have obviously not seen the future! everybody dresses up in the same metallic uniform in the future.


I don't see DNA controlling a person THAT much-- not to the extent of such minor details like favorite color or whether you'll prefer clipping your nails on tuesdays or on wednesdays.

DNA signals your cells to perform certain functions, all of these put together give you traits (some of which are behavioral)... DNA could affect you to prefer certain kinds of environments over others, where you are exposed to certain colors, and you could end up associating them with pleasant experiences.

but I wouldn't go as far as saying that from the day you are born your genes tell you "your favorite color will be red, you will enjoy longs walks on the beach and will leave the toilet seat up after peeing -- this will anger your wife very much."

now that we have established that favorite color is a choice, I move to decide which colors are immoral and destroying the sanctity of the electromagnetic field.