What’s your favorite color? You’ve probably heard that question more than enough times. Favorite colors are a common ice breaker no matter what the setting, but they’re always changing. This could be, simply, because the persons’ taste has changed. Young children are only exposed to a certain seven colors, but as they get older, their knowledge of the color spectrum expands, incorporating more unique hues and shades of the classic ROY G BIV. But what if there’s another reason for this? What if, as you get older, you’re simply incapable of clearly seeing the same colors you used to be able to, limiting your range of colors to choose a favorite from. 

It is well known that color vision deteriorates with age, largely due to the decreased amount of light being transmitted to the photoreceptor cells within the eye. 

A common “quick” color vision test used on the Internet; as people get older, they would have a harder time distinguishing between the colors. 

In a study performed at The Smith-Kettlewell Institute Eye Research Institute in San Francisco, it was found that the rate at which people have issues with their color vision, “increases rapidly through later decades of life” (ScienceDaily). Almost 80% of the errors reported in the study come from the inability to distinguish between “lighter shades of blue vs. purple and yellow vs. green and yellow-green) (ScienceDaily). However, unless the issue is severe, problems with distinguishing between colors would probably go unnoticed. 

So does eyesight affect your favorite color? Maybe as you get older, your favorite color changes simply because you can’t see the same colors that you used to be able to. In order to test this, a qualitative data analysis was run on a data set of 83 people, ranging from ages 9-82. Each person reported their favorite color, specifying it through the use of hex codes, which allowed for people to pick the exact shade they preferred without having to worry about remembering color names. Then, these hex codes were converted to color names to make them more accessible. The names were then run through a number system that allowed for the possibility of classic colors, as well as their light or dark shade. Finally, the data was used to create two histograms, one that displayed the frequency of age and another that described the frequency of color (shown below). 

 

The center of the data for the Favorite Color was 20.90, which translated to light orange according to the established number system. The center for the data for Age was approximately 23. While there is a definite right skew to the distribution of Age, which implies that the people recorded in this study come from a wide range of ages (73), there doesn’t seem to be a consistent distribution of favorite color, nor a correlation between age and favorite color. This indicates that there isn’t a correlation between age and favorite color, and perhaps favorite color just changes due to personal preferences, not the inability to see the color itself. 

So while it could be true that the inability to perceive certain colors doesn’t affect favorite colors, there are certain limitations to the study that make it difficult to state that there is no correlation at all. For one, the study only involves 83 members, and there is no indication that it is a truly unbiased and random sample of the population. Furthermore, there is also no indication of whether or not the members of this study had pre-existing conditions with their eyesight that could affect the results of the survey. Also, the colors converted from hex code to color name were up for interpretation to the analyzer, which means that human error is a definite possible source of error. Finally, the number system established for easier accessibility sacrificed on quality: it isn’t the most detailed and inclusive number system for colors. All of these sources of error together lead to the conclusion that while the results, or rather the lack of results, from this particular data analysis could mean a lack of correlation between increasing age and favorite color, there simply isn’t enough information to make a conclusion either way.

Changes in color preferences can come from a variety of reasons, and it will require a large sata sample in order to determine the psychological reason behind the choice of a color. However, we can safely assume that we’re all on the same wavelength, for now. 

Written by Srinidhi Raghavan
Edited by Srisha Nannapaneni

 

Works Cited

“\/.” YouTube, 16 June 2023, https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rebuildyourvision.com%2Fblog%2Fvision-conditions%2Fcolor-blindness%2Fvision-decline-old-age-affects-ability-see-color%2F&psig=AOvVaw1r6a65WR3kAijTsErqE-Sh&ust=1701295863843000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=8. Accessed 28 November 2023.

 

“Color vision problems become more common with age, study shows.” ScienceDaily, 20 February 2014, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140220102614.htm. Accessed 28 November 2023.