Maybe this is why MeFi is blue...

June 4, 2022 6:28 AM

Why Your Favorite Color is Probably Blue
posted by cozenedindigo (99 comments total)

[Saving some people some time]
Not me. I'm a special unicorn because my favorite color is ________!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:40 AM on June 4, 2022 [38 favorites]

I do wonder if this explains why, starting with the latter half of last year, my experience of attempting to buy any nice shirt-like garment beyond a t-shirt has been "this'd be great if it weren't blue." Apparently the color blue is all I can buy at retail? It's to the point where it's literally turned into an ironic meme around the house.
posted by majick at 6:59 AM on June 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

I mean, I’m obviously a special unicorn but the single strongest and most stable aspect of my identity, even before “likes to read” is that my favorite color is RED. Do I like cats or dogs? Ocean or mountains? Favorite food? Favorite song? City or country? What do I want to be when I grow up? What is my sexual orientation? What is my gender? What are my values? What God do I worship? Who knows?! All is flux, nothing stands still, except that RED is the best color, give me a choice of any array of things and I will always choose the RED one, RED RED RED, I am a person whose favorite color is red; everything about me may change but a love of RED is the bedrock foundation of my being; who am I? I am a person whose favorite color is RED and that will be true of me til the day I die.
posted by Merricat Blackwood at 7:02 AM on June 4, 2022 [30 favorites]

i haven’t had a favorite color since i was twelve but go off
posted by dis_integration at 7:03 AM on June 4, 2022 [14 favorites]

The “preference for varsity colors of your college” is definitely a thing. And in reverse too. Because I’ve definitely noticed a strong distaste for the color combo preferred by the rival university.

For as long as I have been able to express a preference I’ve liked brown. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that purples and greens are a close second. Brown still wins, but most of my work shirts are brighter colors. My wife, she says green is her favorite, but 90% of what she wears (and the colors she likes to use to decorate) are grays and blacks. With a little brown and green thrown in.

majick, what’s worse is that there are MANY colors available in retail! Patterns, even! Until I limit it to my size, because apparently if you are taller than what is stocked in the stores, you have to shop online, and are suddenly limited to like 2 options, both of which are some shade of blue
posted by caution live frogs at 7:10 AM on June 4, 2022 [9 favorites]

I imagine it has in part to do with the fact that only those whose favorite color is blue were allowed to cross the Bridge of Death over the Gorge of Eternal Peril.
posted by TedW at 7:18 AM on June 4, 2022 [22 favorites]

if you are taller than what is stocked in the stores, you have to shop online, and are suddenly limited to like 2 options, both of which are some shade of blue

This is the experience for those of us with certain horizontal dimensions, in addition to those with certain vertical dimensions.
posted by majick at 7:25 AM on June 4, 2022 [8 favorites]

I don't believe that favorite colors are a thing that people have, but for years when people would ask me I would tell them it's "IKB. " It's obscure, but not too obscure. If the person knows what I'm talking about we get to have that pleasant shock of shared knowledge, and if they don't, maybe we have a conversation about art, or the history of pigment, or cyberpunk authors. Also, it's blue, and that's funny to me.

After reading this article I'm thinking of mixing it up and telling people it's Semple's Pinkest Pink, because that's as good a color as any and I like the story around it.

But seriously, favorite colors qua colors? How is that possible when your perception of color changes with every change in the light? And every change in adjacent colors? And every change in emotional context?
posted by surlyben at 7:28 AM on June 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

A favorite is one that you favor, other factors being excluded, not one that you choose all the time.

I like green, which means when we play board games, I'll often choose the green team/set/pawn. On the other hand, I don't know that many shades of green compliment my complexion, so I don't wear a lot of greens. But it's just a color I'm drawn to, I guess.

I do find choosing favorites difficult, though, so often favorite things are a pre-decided answer to the questions others ask, rather than a strong feeling of my own.
posted by explosion at 7:44 AM on June 4, 2022 [7 favorites]

It seems from the article that color preference changes with age. When I was in elementary school, my favorite color was purple. That said, it may have been related to the fact that Tiger Beat told me purple was Donny Osmond's favorite color.
posted by pangolin party at 7:47 AM on June 4, 2022 [7 favorites]

orangeykindasunsetyellowmixedwithbluewaterandbrowntreetrunks? that changes? over time?

or, dappled sunshine on a forest floor?

but not actually blue. more brown and green 💚
posted by shoesfullofdust at 8:02 AM on June 4, 2022

In order of preference: Mossy green. Champagne Pink. Black. Cayenne red/orange. Gold-mustard yellow. Rich teal. Peacock blue. Fuschia.
posted by thivaia at 8:05 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

For you red lovers put there, I highly recommend "Red is Best" by Stinton and Lewis as your go to baby present because it is an amazing and accurate book of delight.
posted by mutt.cyberspace at 8:07 AM on June 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

Red, previously bright red, now closer to a burgundy red because it works with the rest of me better but if its not clothes red, obviously. Since ordering things online, I am also mostly stuck with shades of teal and blue for everything. It is remarkably frustrating.
posted by pan at 8:15 AM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

I once heard that if you ask ten people about their favorite color (or colour), eight will say red, the ninth will say blue and the tenth, something else. Doesn't seem to be the case, according to the BBC, but TFA doesn't mention China (during New Years, especially).
posted by Rash at 8:19 AM on June 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

I would concur that blue is a pretty universal "favorite color" for most people--it's common, it's soothing, etc.

Most people assume mine is purple, this isn't entirely wrong (specifically that pinky-purple shade, whatever that's called), but my color schemes in life are pink/purple/blue or rainbow and that's probably a good chunk of my wardrobe.

I'm inclined to tell people my favorite is flange, except most people wouldn't get the reference.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:19 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

cozenedindigo

Eponysterical
posted by chavenet at 8:21 AM on June 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

I'm on team brown. Though as a child, my initial favorite was yellow, then pink, lavender, and finally brown.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 8:23 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

Blue light is toxic:

Classically described, two types of photochemical damages are induced by light: the first involves rhodopsin and affects photoreceptors5,6. The second concerns the RPE (retinal pigment epithelium), selectively vulnerable to high-energy blue photons7. We have previously shown that conventional LED (light emitting diode) light cause retinal injury in rats. This includes the activation of apoptosis and necrosis8,9. The blue component of light emitted by the LED is the major cause of this damage. Moreover, the blue component of the white-LED may cause retinal toxicity at occupational household illuminance levels and not only in extreme experimental conditions10. We have also shown9 that after LED exposure at doses below the recognized toxic levels, there is a permeabilization of the outer blood retinal barrier (OBRB), a feature seen in many common retinopathies (diabetic retinopathy, for instance)11 together with an increase of the cells size, both features related to ageing of the RPE cells12.

As people age their lenses are less able to transmit blue light, but whether than can be said to be caused by exposure to blue light, I don’t know.

But I remember when blue LED laser pointers came out that I was fascinated by the spot they made on objects way more than I had been with red or green laser pointers.
posted by jamjam at 8:24 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

This article aligns with my experience perfectly. Growing up when my parents would buy stuff, if there was a choice of colors, I would get blue and my brother would get red. I also love the ocean to an irrational degree that I cannot fully explain. Ironic, as I live in Minnesota.

So my favorite color is blue, blue looks good on me so I wear it a LOT, and I just favor it (I like that framing). But I totally understand (and maybe kinda resent) why I have that preference.

So I asked my kid what his favorite color is one day when he was barely three or so. He said, "Yellow!" without hesitation. I asked him again the next day and he said, "Green!" with the same confidence. My childhood and all the times my brother had the red one and I had the blue one flashed before me. So I said, "OH! You told me it was yellow yesterday. But today your favorite color is Green?"

"Yeah." (with a smile)

"Cool! I wonder what your favorite color will be tomorrow!"

And now we ask him, "What is your favorite color today?"

His favorite color will probably still be blue and the fact that I wear so much blue and typically choose blue will likely have something to do with it but I'm doing what I can.
posted by VTX at 8:34 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm an adult. I don't have a favorite color.
posted by signal at 8:44 AM on June 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

Next time you 'do retail', take a look at what is available to buy. This will often determine your choice and not your preference. Blue was one of the earliest dye colors available to humankind (e.g. woad) and it has had a more recent prevalence (relatively) with the blue jeans era/s. Looking around me as I type this in a mall, the cynic in me wants to say the favorite color is 'slobby gray sweat pants with coffee and food stain accents'....
posted by IndelibleUnderpants at 8:45 AM on June 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

#eee8aa aka Pale Goldenrod... not my favourite aesthetically, but for some reason the one that always comes to mind when I'm testing CSS.
posted by protorp at 9:02 AM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

For you red lovers put there, I highly recommend "Red is Best" by Stinton and Lewis as your go to baby present because it is an amazing and accurate book of delight.
posted mutt.cyberspace

Yes! And I was lucky enough to find this little book just in time to give it to my best friend who'd just had her first child, and loves red too. It's really a delightful book.
posted by Zumbador at 9:04 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm an adult. And my current favourite colour is clearly green.

My current hobby is upholstery, and the fabric I like best is almost always green. Every time I see a room I really like the wall colour of, it's green. When I see clothing I'm instantly drawn to it's green or black. My favourite paintings are all of forests.

I'm just drawn to it. Of course, what I actually wear is black and dark grey, but I have two green jumpers now and they are the only colour in my wardrobe.

I can be persuaded to like a deep sapphire blue, in some things, but generally nah.
posted by stillnocturnal at 9:05 AM on June 4, 2022 [4 favorites]

I think as adults in contemporary Western culture, our color preferences mostly boil down to the things we purchase, wear and live with. I'm generalizing, but the only times any of us choose colors is for clothing and house wear (paint, furniture, dishes, bed linens, etc). When was the last time you or 90% of the adults you know chose a crayon or paint to make art with?

It's mostly about perceived social status.

I have an art background. I was a talented and furiously driven kid artist, and eventually had a 20-year career as an art director. Now I work in a fancy-pants garden center (we have an amazing selection). I also have loved plants since I was a child. I'm still surprised when I get customers who completely freeze up when trying to choose flowers/plants for their balcony planters, or window boxes, or entryway urns.

I ask them: "What plants/flowers here do you like? Which plants jump out at you? Tell me and I'll work with you to get stuff together that will work for your environment, amount of sun, etc." And some people will really struggle to answer this question.

So I re-frame the question to ask which colors do they like. This is usually easier for them to answer, and we go from there. Even then, putting plants together, some customers really need a sales person to reassure them that their preferences and choices of colors and plants is "OK." I have learned to just become enthusiastic about the choices people make, and say how much I like it versus asking them if THEY like it.

I guess my point is that a giant part of this topic is about social status more than what colors or plants (or any other kind of art or design choice) some people actually "like." Some people are hesitant or even afraid to "like" things.

*Of course people need genuine practical advice about which plants will thrive in specific conditions and that is where my help is most important. People come from all sorts of different economic and social backgrounds and not everyone knows about plants. I am not some awesome expert about all this, my point is that it's hard to even get some people to say they "like" or "prefer" some things.

**Interesting topic, but the "answer" to the question of favorite color is less interesting than the question itself.

***I'm rambling so enough for now.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:13 AM on June 4, 2022 [8 favorites]

But seriously, favorite colors qua colors?
Yes. Red is best.

How is that possible when your perception of color changes with every change in the light?
If there is sufficient light to distinguish colors and you can see two or more colors and red is one of them, then red is best.

And every change in adjacent colors?
If there is a clash, the adjacent colors are the problem, not red. Red is best.

And every change in emotional context?
Yes.

Red is best.
posted by Don Pepino at 9:19 AM on June 4, 2022 [13 favorites]

the only times any of us choose colors is for clothing and house wear

What about your car? If people like blue so much, how come there's very few blue cars on the road today (to say nothing of orange, purple and green). Look at traffic, what do you see? White, various shades of gray, and red. Automobiles used to be so colorful!
posted by Rash at 9:35 AM on June 4, 2022 [7 favorites]

Cars, too. We bought a used car based on price, year, model, mileage, etc. We thought it was black, which was fine by us. Saw it, test drove it, signed for it.

We didn't realize until we took it out in the sun that it was a very dark navy blue, almost black. Inside, where we looked for dings, scratches, etc, it looked black. Turns out we were really happy about that! It's a cool color.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:46 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

When I was a kid, my favorite color was blue. I vividly remember one boy in preschool or maybe kindergarten getting really mad about this. Blue is for boys! Girls are supposed to like pink!

I don't remember the kid's name, but I hope he grew up ok.
posted by basalganglia at 9:46 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

British racing green has been my favourite colour since at least primary school. You don't get many clothes of the kind I like to wear in it, but I do have a thermos and raspberry pi case!
posted by Dysk at 9:46 AM on June 4, 2022 [4 favorites]

On vehicle colors: previously.

My take, having sold cars for a living, is that the common shades of whites and greys are rarely anyone's first choice but usually their second or third. The price and options tend to be a LOT more important than color for people when buying a new car.
posted by VTX at 9:48 AM on June 4, 2022 [7 favorites]

I’m on Team Blue. Again, though, that doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for everything, and I would not, say, always buy the blue version. Simply, the right shade of blue makes me deeply happy in a way other colours rarely do.

It was interesting to consider from the article how such preferences can be down to emotional associations, both good and bad. This is true in so many things — names, whether of friends or the school bully; music, smells, etc — but I had never considered it for colour preference. It now seems obvious. I suppose it’s hard not to enjoy blue on some level, when it’s regularly reinforced by the colour of a glorious sunny sky.
posted by breakfast burrito at 9:48 AM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

The best color is the newly sprung leaves of a California sycamore, viewed from the shade of the tree looking up on a summer’s day.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:56 AM on June 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

What about your car?

Not just cars but also appliances and houses inside and out. For a colour we have a preference for it sure is lacking in our built up enviroment.
posted by Mitheral at 9:57 AM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

It's purple for me, followed by the blue of Caribbean water.

Automobiles used to be so colorful!

I miss this so much, especially on long car trips. I had a lapis blue Dodge Neon years ago which was so fun. Like many Neons, the pain started flaking off which wasn't fun, but it was a good few years.
posted by kimberussell at 9:58 AM on June 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

For a very long time if you asked my nephew his favorite color it was "Home Depot!" (i.e. orange). I guess his parents took him to the hardware store a lot, although when they switched to Lowe's I don't think his color preference changed to "Lowe's!" (i.e. blue).

He just graduated from college, I guess I should check if he's got a new favorite color, although since he went to the University of Michigan, the probability is high that it is "maize and blue".
posted by Preserver at 10:00 AM on June 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

Blue has been the default color for button-down business casual shirts for at least a decade. T-shirts: blue might slightly be the most common, but after that it's dealers' choice.

Automobiles used to be so colorful!

They still are. On a long road trip, you will see the rainbow.
Trucks (rigs) are even more colorful.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:16 AM on June 4, 2022

Many of you are failing your turing tests...
posted by kaibutsu at 10:21 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

My favorite color is deep red; it's all over my house. But I only wear black and I only buy cars that are light-colored. I feel confident in black (and used to dye my hair various bright colors, so that was my "pop of color.") And dark colored cars, which I aesthetically prefer, get too hot in the summer.

That being said, for some reason, my Minecraft builds tend to be blue, blue, blue. It just happens! I love those lapis blocks!
posted by headspace at 10:34 AM on June 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

On a long road trip, you will see the rainbow.

While other colours are available, grey scale paint jobs are more than 70% of new car sales. Blue ecks out a paltry 12% and a good chunk of that is actually colours like blue-grey slate.
posted by Mitheral at 10:35 AM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

Blue has always been my favorite color ever since I was a little kid. Blue, cats and large shoes have been the aesthetic constants in my life. My friends make fun of me in a nice way because if I can get a thing in blue, I get it in blue. Everything that I have had the chance to paint at my house is a shade of blue, my bedding is blue, the majority of my clothes are blue, as much of my furniture as I could afford to pick based on color is blue, etc. I could in fact wear literally entirely blue every day like one of those people who wear all one color because so much of my wardrobe is blue. This does not strike me as weird or indeed even very obvious because it's all different shades and patterns, but it is apparent enough to non-Frowners that it seems funny.

But really, the best colors are combinations - like the best colors of all are snow among the trees at sunset on a clear day: the deep shadowy blackish of the trees, the blue purple of shadows on the snow, the wet looking blue-white of the snow itself, the blue and warm gold in the sky. That's my very favorite color situation, something I like more than just blue by itself. Those are natural colors whose texture and temperature make them what they are, so it wouldn't work to, eg, dress in those colors. Even if I found, say, a blue-purple-snow-shadow colored armchair, it would be an armchair, not the world, and it wouldn't work.

In fact, I think one reason blue is my favorite practical color is that it works well with a lot of different fabrics. Some dyes don't, so it's harder to find really good clothes or textiles - grey wools are terrific, but grey cottons are really hit and miss, for instance, so although I like grey a lot it's not my favorite. But blue dyes work well on different textured cottons and even do fairly well on leather, which grey really, really doesn't. So yes, as per the article, I like blue because blue things often look nice.
posted by Frowner at 10:36 AM on June 4, 2022 [7 favorites]

I have a first, second, and even third favorite color. As an adult I don't have a lot of reasons to declare my favorites, except that as a tabletop gamer I often get to choose what color my character/meeple/playing pieces will be. Just like that, kid again.

First choice is always brown, but (from my narrow self-survey of board games) brown is not a popular meeple color. If no brown, yellow. If no yellow, orange. If no orange, then I guess I don't care what color I am, and the game starts on a lackluster note.
posted by Gray Duck at 10:46 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

My favorite colors can't be observed by the normal human eye and can only be simulated or approximated through techniques or phenomena like rapid strobing, color cycling or iridescence.

Some close analogs would be the hyper-rainbow colors of when you get the star power up in Mario Kart while on Rainbow Road, or the light of a really good sunset reflected in the glassy ripples of calm water, or the iridescent sheen of a fire opal.
posted by loquacious at 10:46 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

Ultraviolet.
posted by Splunge at 10:51 AM on June 4, 2022

Oh also: best blue is ultramarine.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 11:46 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

in a pre-read guess, and especially given that this is bbc, i figured it had to do with blue eyes being most common in the area (or, further south, most common after brown, which my not be considered 'interesting'), but the article says it's universal, even in japan blue is most commonly favorite. surprising.
posted by Clowder of bats at 11:50 AM on June 4, 2022

Ctrl-F "greige" = no results. Apparently we don't have many interior decorators of the pandemic era here.
posted by goatdog at 11:50 AM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

Beuce, purange and bendigo, in alternating stripes.
posted by flabdablet at 11:54 AM on June 4, 2022

Also I like avocado.
posted by flabdablet at 11:58 AM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

pink hair, purple shoes
posted by glonous keming at 12:02 PM on June 4, 2022

Somewhere between midnight blue and blueblack, like the sky when twilight turns into dark.
posted by box at 12:13 PM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

My six year old has maintained for several years that her favorite color is RAINBOW.
posted by Catblack at 12:14 PM on June 4, 2022 [16 favorites]

Bleen
posted by clew at 12:31 PM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

If your child has been six for several years, I'd like to know their secret.
posted by maxwelton at 12:50 PM on June 4, 2022 [10 favorites]

the right shade of blue makes me deeply happy in a way other colours rarely do

Yes! This is so true for me. My favorite color has been blue for as long as I can remember. There are certain shades of blue (the blue of dayflowers, for instance) that are just intensely pleasurable to behold. There seem to be a lot of people out there who don't get that feeling from any color. Or maybe they get it from all colors? If you don't have a favorite color, is it because you love them all or are indifferent to them all? I hate the greenish/yellowish/brownish color it sounds like most people hate, but my real color nemesis is purple. Many shades of purple (these petunias, for example) are as unpleasant for me to look at as blue is pleasant.
posted by Redstart at 12:57 PM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

Ultraviolet

Now I'm pondering what an iridescent or alternating strobe between ultraviolet and infrared would look like, even with normal human vision because you can kind of see near-visible parts or harmonics of those parts of the spectrum.

And what kind of weird photonics and physics stuff that might happen if you mixed, combined or strobed high intensity UV and IR, especially with very high powered and concentrated lasers.

I bet there's some super weird science shenanigans in there because even single coherent wavelengths of extremely concentrated light do some really weird things.
posted by loquacious at 1:03 PM on June 4, 2022

#eee8aa aka Pale Goldenrod... not my favourite aesthetically, but for some reason the one that always comes to mind when I'm testing CSS.

Orange is my fav but along the line of the above, I use #abcdef ... easy to remember and it is a pleasing, calming blue.
posted by mmascolino at 1:03 PM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I maintained that blue was my favorite color when I was young. I later came to realize that at least part of this preference was shaped by sibling rivalry -- my brother asserted that red was his favorite, so I had to pick something different.

Still, I do have some affection for blue. But in middle age, I've come to realize that the color I'm really drawn to over just about any other is grey. I can't explain why. I'm not sure I know anyone else who feels this way. Maybe I find the neutrality of it soothing?

And yes, I vastly prefer the British spelling, with an "e", despite being an American. I actually think of "gray" as a more disagreeably greenish hue, while "grey" is cooler and bluer.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 1:06 PM on June 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IR/UV_mixing

Yep, I knew it! Super weird freaky physics shit! Of course IR-UV mixing is a thing that has been studied.
posted by loquacious at 1:09 PM on June 4, 2022

Octarine.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:30 PM on June 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

As children in kindergarten, my brother was in the blue class and I was in the red class. That ment that everything was colour coded, toothbrushes, towels, swimcaps, you name it.
When some yeas later my brother declared his favourite colour was orange I sighed in secret relief because now I could have blue.
I am partial to petrol and mint green, but I really like secretly like blue.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 2:20 PM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

You're reminding me of that last sequence in the TAL on Camp called Color Days, where the girls are divided into four teams: Blue, Red, Green (the choice for those with red hair) and White.
posted by Rash at 2:36 PM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

Passionate red-loving freaks, you are my people!

This has never varied throughout my life. And I'm with others here who are surprised that other people are surprised that people actually have strong color preferences.

The number of Philips Hue bulbs I have is in the double digits. It makes me very happy to live with strongly colored lighting, and a deep red is usually my choice. Blues and greens have greatly improved as the product has evolved generationally — they were pretty weak but now they can be deeply saturated.

The article included this:

“In fact, pink was seen as a stereotypically male colour prior to the 1920s and only became associated with girls midway through the 20th Century. (Read more about the pink-blue gender preference myth.)”

The parenthetical literally links to a debunking of this myth. It's almost certainly not true — the evidence is thin to nonexistent but this has become a woozle.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:15 PM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

I never had a favorite color. I learned at a very early age that that was weird so I would lie and say "red" if anyone asked, to avoid an awkward conversation.

I do have a preference when I buy cars, bicycles, etc... black. With black trim and black accessories.
posted by mmoncur at 3:24 PM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

Sidenote: the first time your child asks you what your favourite colour is, your answer will be your favourite colour for the rest of your life. So take care.
posted by Hogshead at 3:41 PM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

When I was in kindergarten, I answered this question with "black." My teacher was very worried; this preference in a child indicated all sorts of bad things, and she wrote a note to my parents about her concerns. They wrote back that I just liked the Batmobile on Batman. Which was true. When Batman went off the air, I switched to blue.

In the late '80s, I began buying a lot of cranberry-colored shirts because that's what Captain Picard wore.
posted by bryon at 3:41 PM on June 4, 2022 [4 favorites]

With synesthesia, my relationship to color is really complicated. Some letters and numbers have colors, and I also have strange reactions to certain colors that the average person wouldn't. Certain colors nauseate me, particularly maroon/oxblood/burgundy and certain yellows/greens, and they can be really hard to get away from when they're in fashion, the way that shade of red has been the past few years. Or say, like, your friend paints their entire interior a maroon color and you have to sit there trying not to hurl.

Purple's my fave and I wear a lot of it, which for some reason people always have to comment on. I have yet to come up with a snappy comeback that's not too nasty for the frequently heard "I guess you really like purple!"
posted by kitten kaboodle at 3:46 PM on June 4, 2022 [4 favorites]

I thought Metafilter was blue because it is the shallows of the newly surfacing web. Ask is green because it's a little crazy. MeTa is gray to encourage neutrality. Jobs is puce for reasons unknown to me. My favourite colour is the ruby red that is a pot of coffee in the sunlight.
posted by parmanparman at 4:06 PM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

Red skies at morning, sailors ... have more to look forward to in retirement, I guess.

Because morning exposure to certain wavelengths of red light appears to retard and reverse mitochondria driven aging of the human retina:

In humans around 40 years-old, cells in the eye's retina begin to age, and the pace of this ageing is caused, in part, when the cell's mitochondria, whose role is to produce energy (known as ATP) and boost cell function, also start to decline.

Mitochondrial density is greatest in the retina's photoreceptor cells, which have high energy demands. As a result, the retina ages faster than other organs, with a 70% ATP reduction over life, causing a significant decline in photoreceptor function as they lack the energy to perform their normal role.

Researchers built on their previous findings in mice, bumblebees and fruit flies, which all found significant improvements in the function of the retina's photoreceptors when their eyes were exposed to 670 nanometre (long wavelength) deep red light.

"Mitochondria have specific light absorbance characteristics influencing their performance: longer wavelengths spanning 650 to 1000nm are absorbed and improve mitochondrial performance to increase energy production," said Professor Jeffery.

But to get the benefit of red light, exposure has to take place in the morning:

The retina's photoreceptor population is formed of cones, which mediate colour vision, and rods, which adapt vision in low/dim light. This study focused on cones*** and observed colour contrast sensitivity, along the protan axis (measuring red-green contrast) and the tritan axis (blue-yellow).

All the participants were aged between 34 and 70, had no ocular disease, completed a questionnaire regarding eye health prior to testing, and had normal colour vision (cone function). This was assessed using a 'Chroma Test': identifying coloured letters that had very low contrast and appeared increasingly blurred, a process called colour contrast.

Using a provided LED device all 20 participants (13 female and 7 male) were exposed to three minutes of 670nm deep red light in the morning between 8am and 9am. Their colour vision was then tested again three hours post exposure and 10 of the participants were also tested one week post exposure.

On average there was a 'significant' 17% improvement in colour vision, which lasted a week in tested participants; in some older participants there was a 20% improvement, also lasting a week.

A few months on from the first test (ensuring any positive effects of the deep red light had been 'washed out') six (three female, three male) of the 20 participants, carried out the same test in the afternoon, between 12pm to 1pm. When participants then had their colour vision tested again, it showed zero improvement.

Professor Jeffery said: "Using a simple LED device once a week, recharges the energy system that has declined in the retina cells, rather like re-charging a battery.

"And morning exposure is absolutely key to achieving improvements in declining vision: as we have previously seen in flies, mitochondria have shifting work patterns and do not respond in the same way to light in the afternoon -- this study confirms this."

For this study the light energy emitted by the LED torch was just 8mW/cm2, rather than 40mW/cm2, which they had previously used. This has the effect of dimming the light but does not affect the wavelength. While both energy levels are perfectly safe for the human eye, reducing the energy further is an additional benefit.

So blue might be what you want, but red might be what you need.
posted by jamjam at 4:31 PM on June 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

I'm curious about the social construction of the concept of having a favorite color. If you asked most people what their 'favorite texture' is, they could probably tell you some textures they like, maybe choose one as their most beloved if pressed to do so, but "favorite texture" does not really exist as a parameter for identity the way favorite color does. Is the concept cross-cultural? When, in time, did it appear?
posted by dusty potato at 5:55 PM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

On average there was a 'significant' 17% improvement...

I'm not 100% on this, but for a sample size of 20, a 17% effect is not significant at all?
posted by storybored at 5:56 PM on June 4, 2022

I am partial to petrol and mint green, but I really like secretly like blue.

I'm not sure I understand -- are you referring to petrol as a color?
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 6:42 PM on June 4, 2022

I'm not 100% on this, but for a sample size of 20, a 17% effect is not significant at all?

If you had taken a moment to follow the citation in the linked article to its nature.com page, you would have found that it’s actually significant at the P < 0.0001 level:

Tritan threshold measures are improved by an average of 17% (P < 0.0001) and protan by an average of 12% (P < 0.0001. Figure 1).

Casual, unreflective, and deeply uninformed skepticism is reaching almost plague levels on MetaFilter.
posted by jamjam at 7:00 PM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm fond of green but I can't wear it. Being sallow, it makes me look like I need a liver transplant...
posted by jim in austin at 7:50 PM on June 4, 2022

Jewel tones for me, thanks.

Doesn’t matter which color, as long as they are saturated and vibrant, rich and voluptuous.

Sapphire. Lapis. Amethyst. Garnet. Aquamarine. Ruby. Emerald. Citrine. Molten gold.
posted by darkstar at 8:09 PM on June 4, 2022 [7 favorites]

I have a fondness for turquoise because I'm just resigned to being a 90s kid forever. But generally, my "favorite colors" are just whatever I look best in.
posted by grandiloquiet at 8:13 PM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I have yet to come up with a snappy comeback that's not too nasty for the frequently heard "I guess you really like purple!"

I also like purple enough to get this comment, and since I'm a weirdo who has experienced artificial synesthesia I'd probably reply with something like "I sure do! It sounds like grape Kool Aid when I look at it! Don't worry, I brought enough to share. Have a listen at these socks!!" and just leave them bewildered and confused.

I mean the purple shirt should have been warning enough but they had to be oblivious and say something like that.
posted by loquacious at 9:17 PM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

There is a certain shade of blue that to me is as tweak worthy as the neon yellow/orange safety sorts of colors and as eye-catching as the cat's eye reflectors in roadways. It's so annoying, I can not catch a glimpse of it and not have it be some shade of blue that even in peripheral vision fucks with my brain. It's a rather peculiar narrow band of blue, the rest of blue is just fine. Much like MetaFilter itself ;P Personally I like green and purple and sometimes red or grey and black.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:27 PM on June 4, 2022

I heard the “I bet your favorite color is blue” party trick when I was 9 or 10, and up until that point my favorite color was the cerulean crayola, so much so that my first grade teacher had to correct my pronunciation of the word. But I was so determined not to be predictable that I decided to change to green. Now, as an adult, I really do think I look better in greens and find more shades of green appealing. I still do think cerulean is beautiful though.
posted by Night_owl at 10:11 PM on June 4, 2022

There's another party trick that goes sorta like this... write a word on a piece of paper and put it in your pocket... ask them "What's 1+8", 'nine', "What's 2+7", 'nine', "What's 3+6", 'nine', "What's 4+5", 'nine'.... name a vegetable.... 'carrot'. Show piece of paper that has 'carrot' written on it.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:35 PM on June 4, 2022

I feel like "favorite color" is not a query for genuine preferences so much as a kind of practice for identity construction: a favorite color is pretty much the most arbitrary preference possible, and we ask children to pick one as a sort of training in the performance of personality, as a warmup for more consequential identifications.
posted by Pyry at 10:37 PM on June 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

Artifice_Eternity, my mistake
(Italian) petrol green = (English) teal

Sidenote, Italian distinguishes blue and light blue (blu e azzurro) in a way that English does not. I wonder if the Italians would chose azzurro over blu, as azzurro is the national team colour, hence alligence.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 12:28 AM on June 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

When I was a child, aged 5, I was allowed to work all around our town (we moved a lot), and there was a pink and purple house, and I remember thinking that my favourite paired colours were pink and purple, gold & silver (I had been given a colour pencil set that included those the previous Xmas), and black and white, though my little 5-year-old brain acknowledged the black and white was a bit boring.

In my journey in becoming a graphic designer, before I studied at university, I read that blue was considered a trustworthy colour, used by banks (and so on), and before knowing colour theory, I realised the blue and orange was a special combo (I don't like orange). When I put together a travel wardrobe, I went with navy and white, crisp and easy to mix and match, and my eyes are blue. My work "uniform" is black and white.

After all that, my favourite colour that I use in decorating my home is green, because it reminds me of plants. So we need to ask, favourite colour for what?
posted by b33j at 1:41 AM on June 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

Oh my favourite watercolour paint colour (because I do a lot of flowers) is Rose Madder (thank you Stephen King) but at the tint level I use, it's a pink. For appliances, I prefer "stainless steel" even though they are made of aluminium. For tables in Word, green or Teal. Just to look at duck egg blue. To win a primary school game, carmine (because nobody else knew about it). For shadows and dark places in painting, Payne's grey. So many colours, so little time. Any faix-synesthesia I have is related to magnetic letters and cuisanaire rods.
posted by b33j at 2:19 AM on June 5, 2022

b33j: ... and dark places in painting, Payne's grey

Payne's grey! That's the black hole of watercolour paints. It just sucks everything into itself. Fascinating, but it needs to be approached with caution.
posted by Termite at 3:59 AM on June 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

I have yet to come up with a snappy comeback that's not too nasty for the frequently heard "I guess you really like purple!"

Born to it, I guess! But I make an effort not to be condescending about commoner colors.
posted by jamjam at 5:08 AM on June 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Is anyone else super indecisive and unable to settle on a favourite colour bc they like all of them depending on the context?

That "blue light is toxic" article makes me feel smug. Blue light has always hurt my eyes and hardly anyone believes me! I was sensing danger this whole time.
posted by Stoof at 6:00 AM on June 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Blue is my favorite color. I'm happy to be totally normal. but what does that mean? I do have a lot of blue clothes, but I have more black and grey and green clothes, and some white, too. And I love red. If I have to buy an object, like a kettle, and red is an option, I will always buy the red one, and only rarely the blue. And I really love yellow for walls. Right now I don't have any yellow walls, but that is because I haven't decided yet which room(s) to paint. In another apartment, I had two rooms the color of summer butter and the kitchen had a red linoleum floor and countertops. I'm sitting in my beige bedroom/study and looking at my cyan living room. My bed cover is made of saris, and the dominant colors are red, golden yellow and beige, but there are green elements too. In the early spring, it echoes the colors of a maple tree that takes up half the view out of my window (the rest is blue sky, right now). It all makes me very happy. I think I love color, though perhaps one shouldn't love inanimate things or properties of them.
posted by mumimor at 6:22 AM on June 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Green hands down. Yellow second.
posted by floweredfish at 9:31 AM on June 5, 2022

Favourite color why?

Because RED.

I am a gamer. Anytime I cannot play RED, i am probably still playing RED.
posted by Windopaene at 12:05 PM on June 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm a purple person. Have been my entire life. The only color I specifically hate is that baby pink/breast cancer ribbon/princess pink. It just makes my eyes hurt and my skin crawl. It's hard to find a breast cancer t shirt that isn't overwhelmingly that pink (I'm a survivor). Jewel tones look good on me as do certain pastels. Today I wore a white/fuchsia/purple color blocked dress to church. Jewelry is almost exclusively silver. I have a few gold pieces that were my moms.
posted by kathrynm at 3:13 PM on June 5, 2022

My favorite color is true cyan.
posted by rifflesby at 8:18 PM on June 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Green, orange, red and black...I have maybe 3 articles of clothing that are blue. Almost nothing I purchase is blue...but I do like Metafilter still.
posted by Chuffy at 9:31 PM on June 5, 2022

This is why men's shirts are so incredibly boring. (I threw out my blue shirts and brown pants a few years ago. I don't think it's just because I'm petulant.)

My favorite colors, and my wardrobe, and my walls, and most of the art I hang, are dark red and black. As are the flags I bring to protests, but I claim that's unrelated. I guess I also wear grey and white on rare occasions.
posted by eotvos at 8:17 AM on June 6, 2022

Ctrl-F "greige" = no results. Apparently we don't have many interior decorators of the pandemic era here.

...I actually really like greige, but specifically, I like how a greige looks in the sunlight when it's contrasting with rich brown wood and a bright green plant. So warm and clean but a little old, such a vibe.

Any color is my favorite when it's just exactly right for the circumstances. I recently spent a long time out in the suburbs -- a suburb that is just now aging into its sedate middle age, with mature trees and lush landscaping, and fell completely in love with the riot of greens. And I live in a city neighborhood that is relatively leafy, but man. There is nothing like these greens in my city, even in the parks.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:59 AM on June 6, 2022 [4 favorites]

Alizaren crimson. (painter in oils)
posted by a humble nudibranch at 2:10 AM on June 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Worthy again just for its name, a humble nudibranch!
posted by clew at 9:10 AM on June 9, 2022

Color has always interesting to me. I see something and think it's clearly a minty green, and someone else sees the same thing and thinks that it clearly is blue.

My actual favorite color is a deep dark pink, something in the vein of a magenta, more red than the more purple-toned fuchsia. But people tend to get confused when I go into that much detail, so I tend to say red. Red is more bold, and more pleasant than the baby-toned super pale pink that most people think of when I say pink.

But truly? I like colors together best of all. White on its own is rather bland, but black and white together? Stunning. Blue is very nice, but it's best when its alongside an equally lovely shade of green. Color in combination is the best color of all.
posted by PearlRose at 10:43 AM on June 9, 2022 [2 favorites]