Abstract
Gender-related differences in human color preferences, color perception, and color lexicon have been reported in the literature over several decades. This work focuses on the way the two genders categorize color stimuli. Using the cross-cultural data from the World Color Survey (WCS) and rigorous mathematical methodology, a function is constructed, which measures the differences in color categorization systems manifested by men and women. A significant number of cases are identified, where men and women exhibit markedly disparate behavior. Interestingly, of the regions in the Munsell color array, the green-blue (“grue”) region appears to be associated with the largest group of categorization differences, with females revealing a more differentiated color categorization pattern compared to males. More precisely, in those cases, females tend to use separate green and/or blue categories, while males predominantly use the grue category. In general, the cases singled out by our method warrant a closer study, as they may indicate a transitional categorization scheme.
Highlights
It has been asserted that languages have specific categorization schemes shared among population members, which promote efficient learning and communication among speakers (Berlin and Kay, 1991; Kay and Maffi, 1999; Lindsey and Brown, 2006)
In our previous work (Fider et al, 2017), we defined a category strength function, CS, which had range [0, 1], and measured the degree of agreement of the population with regards to different color words. We used this function to identify the set of basic color terms (BCTs) with respect to a threshold value t∗, which we denote W∗
Systematic computational analysis of the World Color Survey (WCS) data revealed the existence of a number of differences in color categorization systems by males and females
Summary
It has been asserted (and subsequently, studied for the past several decades) that languages have specific categorization schemes shared among population members, which promote efficient learning and communication among speakers (Berlin and Kay, 1991; Kay and Maffi, 1999; Lindsey and Brown, 2006). Many studies in the past have demonstrated that there are measurable differences in the way males and females see, perceive, and talk about color. In his seminal work in 1965, Chapanis (1965) found that women were significantly more consistent in matching color chips to color names. Further it was found that, compared to males, females revealed a more refined linguistic segmentation of color space, predominantly along the red–green axis of color space. Those findings may reflect gender differences in cultural factors relating to range of available color terms and access to them
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