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Color Preference

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology

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Synonyms

Color aesthetics; Color harmony; Favorite colors

Definition

How much people like different colors

Main Text

One of the most fascinating aspects of color cognition is that people have strong preferences, liking certain colors and color combinations much more than others. What is known about human color preferences, not only in terms of which colors and color combinations people like but also why they like them, will be discussed below.

Preference for Single Colors

Average color preferences for a given sample of colors are typically measured behaviorally by asking a group of people to perform one of the following tasks [9]. First, observers can be asked to indicate which of two simultaneously presented colors they prefer for each possible pair of colors in the sample. The probability, averaged over observers, of choosing each color versus all other sample colors is then taken as a measure of its average relative preference within that sample. Second, observers can be shown all...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Karen B. Schloss

  2. Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Stephen E. Palmer

Authors
  1. Karen B. Schloss
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  2. Stephen E. Palmer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen B. Schloss .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Color Science & Imaging Lab, North Carolina State Univ, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Renzo Shamey

Section Editor information

  1. Faculty of Engineering Sciences, University College London, London, Please select, UK

    Lindsay MacDonald

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Schloss, K.B., Palmer, S.E. (2020). Color Preference. In: Shamey, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_70-14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_70-14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27851-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27851-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Color Preference
    Published:
    29 June 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_70-14

  2. Original

    Color Preference
    Published:
    09 April 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_70-13

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