Our first interest lies in determining what colors are the general favorites. The first place is held by blue, which is selected as the most pleasing color by slightly more than one quarter of all the voters; and the second place, though not a good second, by red, which is chosen by somewhat less than half as many as choose blue. In the next group of most pleasing colors are found lighter blue, blue violet, red violet, lighter red (or pink) violet, and "no choice," while the five least favorite colors are orange and its shadings toward red and yellow. In order to illustrate the significance of this result it may be noted that the four colors, blue, red, lighter blue, and blue violet, constitute just about half the entire preferences; or, again, if we divide the number of records into four approximately equal parts, blue would constitute the first quarter; red, lighter blue, and blue violet the second quarter; red violet, lighter red, violet, "no choice," green, and yellow the third quarter; and the remaining fifteen colors would constitute the last quarter of the color preferences.
It will be remembered that the colors presented for selection were divisible into two groups, the one group composed of the lighter shades of the colors of the other group. On comparing the preferences between the two groups it appears unmistakably that the darker colors are decidedly preferred. Of every seven persons five choose among the darker colors and only two among the lighter. An equally unmistakable tendency is the preference for the primary colors—i. e., red, orange, yellow, etc.—as opposed to the transitional ones—i. e., red orange, orange yellow, etc.; this preference is nearly as marked as that of the dark above the lighter shades. This seems to indicate that colors more distinctly corresponding to familiar shades and names are apt to be chosen as opposed to those that are less typical and familiar. All these results appear so clearly and strikingly that they may be regarded as possessing considerable general validity.
We may now consider the color preferences of the two sexes. The differences between the male and female preferences are con-
1,810 (about two fifths) by women. Of these, only 3,043 (1,864 men and 1,179 women) indicated both the preferences for the combination of colors as well as for the single color, and only 2,594 (1,548 men and 1,046 women) recorded their ages. These numbers are suggestive, as indicating that, of all those sufficiently interested to stop and select a color, only fifty-seven per cent were careful to follow the entire directions, while just about two thirds did as requested, except that they did not record the age. In all these respects the women are no more nor no less accurate than the men.
The ages of the voters cover a wide range, from six to seventy years. The age best represented occurs at about twenty-two years. One half of all the voters are between nineteen years and six months and thirty-five years of age, and two thirds of them would be between seventeen and thirty-nine years old. The age distribution of the men and women presents no significant differences.
