This is Making Me Cranky
“Women really do prefer pink, researchers say.”
I’ll first note that I haven’t (yet) read the study this article references myself. However, as represented in this article from Reuters, this is some icky pseudoscience which apparently fails to take into account that the pink = femininity association is historically a very recent development, arising sometime in the past 100 years. Prior to that, in Victorian England, blue was the color for girls. In other parts of the world at other points in history, there are other associations. (No citations for my own arguments, alas, because I don’t have them handy and I’m too tired to search some out.)
In their experimental group, they seem to have found a gender divide between the colors preferred by women versus men. Then they proceed to “speculate that this sex difference arose from sex-specific functional specialization in the evolutionary division of labor.” Rather than a much simpler explanation: our color preferences are heavily influenced by our social environment. Consider how quickly a particular shade can pass from neutral to favored to distinctly dated in the fashion world. Color preferences are not static, and while individuals clearly have native preferences, it’s also clear that these preferences are shaped by our social groups.
Insisting that a pattern found in a small group (which was most likely taken from a pool of people who are all members of more-or-less the same cultural group!) must not only apply to all people around the world, but that this pattern necessarily has a biological and evolutionary basis is an overinterpretation of the data and is piss-poor science.
If any of my readers have a source through which I can read the original paper, I’ll be most appreciative. If they’ve addressed any of these points in the paper, I’d hate to be complaining unnecessarily. I suspect, though, that getting to read the original source will only allow me to skewer it more effectively.
And remember, boys and girls, when you’re doing science, look for the simplest explanation that accounts for all known data! Sometimes a correlation is just a correlation.
Marie Says:
Sometimes a correlation is just a correlation. So true!
In my online course, the last unit was all about critiquing research, and I got to write two papers on “Can I trust this data?” and “Evaluating Biased Information”. SO. MUCH. FUN. (Well, I wrote one paper, the other is coming soon.)
My boy has a pink flower-shaped pacifier holder, and we got our first fish the other day at a diner. The waitress said, “Oh, I’m just going to take her home! I had four boys and I always wanted a girl.” I told her she would be in for an unpleasant surprise when she got him home, if that was the case! We both laughed. Yes, boys sometimes have flowers between their teeth. Pink flowers.
Posted on August 21st, 2007 at 11:42 am
EnnaVic Says:
I haven’t seen the original source but it was being reported here more along the lines of being a preference from birth (I was interested in how they assessed that) and right around the world, so may have been wider than it would seem from the article you saw.
I was a bit dubious though being well aware of the pseudo-science trends. My daughter (now 4) is going through a pink phase at the moment but I am really hoping it’s a passing phase as I am not a ‘pink’ type person at all. My 2 sons are quite varied in what they like thank goodness.
Posted on August 25th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Country Mouse Says:
EnnaVic, Bad Science has a nice post giving more detail. This study has indeed been drastically overinterpreted in the media (if not in the paper itself). The study did not show the same results at all for their Chinese sample group, with results showing a different range of colors preferred and a far lesser difference between the genders on color preference than that seen in the British group.
Additionally, whatever source reported the preference being seen from birth was dead wrong. The study subjects were in their 20s.
Marie, that sounds like a fun class. And I had that happen with Acorn a time or two; I remember one occasion when several people complimented me on my pretty little girl over the course of the day. He was dressed in a white sweater and white hat, that day. I never have figured out what made that outfit look feminine to so many people.
Posted on August 28th, 2007 at 9:55 am