Colors For Boys and Girls, and How They Affect Gender

In our culture there are basic colors for boys and girls. Pink is the classic color for a baby girl and blue, the classic color for a baby boy. Why is this? Is there some scientific meaning why? Or do we just assume that all girls have to like pink and all boys have to like blue, and that this is it. Many researchers have found that there are differences between genders in preferences for colors. In 1934 Guilford did an investigation on the harmony of color combination and how a person reacts to the colors and the colors balanced with their opposites. He found out that a person is more likely to see balance in colors that are closely related to their opposite. Guilford also found out that more pleasing results were obtained from either very small or very large differences in hue rather than medium differences, with this tendency more frequent in women than men. In 1926 a study showed that yellow had a higher affect on men than on women. A 1938 study found that blue stands out more for men that for women. Jastrow who also showed that men prefer blue and woman red also found this out in 1897. In 1959 Guilford and Smith’s study found that men were more tolerant towards achromatic colors than women do. They then proposed that therefore woman might be more color conscious and that their color tastes can be more flexible. Blue-green was favored more by woman as well as tints of colors instead of shades.
So why are baby colors so definite? Well apparently pastel blue for boys and pastel pink for girls is a more “new” thing, since the 40’s. Before the 40’s pink was considered appropriate and more masculine and “decided” for boys, while blue was dainty and delicate and therefore appropriate for girls. But now pink has become a woman’s color, perhaps because of the shades of red being more pleasing to woman, and vive-versa for men with blue.