ready ! Think of a color . Now think of a number between one and 10 . What did you prefer ?
If a vulgar factoid is to be believed , the answer is most likely “ blue ” and “ seven ” . And we bang what you ’re consider : that there must be some sort ofconfirmation biasat gambling here ; that Brobdingnagian swathes of people just ca n’t be so predictable ; thatthe legal philosophy of large numbersmust sure even everything up over a big enough population .
But in fact , there ’s some bona fide evidence to corroborate the so - holler “ blue seven phenomenon ” – even if almost all of it comes from the same few researchers from the 1970s . So what ’s going on ?
The evidence
It bulge out in the 2nd twelvemonth of that decade , when William Simon , a researcher at Southampton College – the establishment no longer exists , having been suck into Stony Brook University in 2006 – follow some 490 college pupil with the same question we present at the beginning of this clause .
“ The turn seven and the color wild blue yonder were by far the most ofttimes written , ” Simonreported , with close to one in three picking the former , and more than two in five choosing the latter . That’swelloutside what you ’d expect from random chance , and in spades intrigue enough for Simon to broaden his investigating – which is on the nose what he did the next year , moving from college students down to elemental and third-year high school scholar .
The resultant , though , were the same : “ 533 elementary and junior in high spirits schooling children were requested to write down a number between 0 and 9 and the name of a colour , ” hereported in 1972 , and “ the number seven and the color blue were by far the most ofttimes written ( phosphorus < .001 in both cases ) . ”
Further investigations by other researcher found like result . Asmaller 1976 studyamong male university student in Kenya seemed to reproduce the effect reasonably strongly ; the same matter happenedin Australia in 1978even after subjects were inform of the preconception . Clearly , this was a phenomenon that transcended cultural boundaries , potentially innate in humans from birth .
Or was it ? As time run on , some researcher questioned these initial surveys . Were they looking at a “ blue seven phenomenon ” , or two unrelated effects that had been by artificial means thrown together ? Did thephrasing of the questionsmake a difference ? And even if the phenomenon was real , what would that mean ?
In short : is gloomy - seven real ? And if it is … thenwhy ?
Blue?
It ’s one of the first questions little kids memorize to ask to get to know each other : “ What is yourfavorite colour ? ” And , perhaps surprisingly , it ’s also one of the first things psychologist ever asked : “ Surveys on colouration preference can be found among the very first psychological experiments , ” explained Miho Saito , an educational and societal psychologist from Waseda University , in 2015 .
“ Some subject field have been bear out on the preference for colors associated with especial objects , ” Saito save . “ Many , however , have investigated the affectional appeal of colour , not in compounding , but singly , so as to assess single colors themselves without the influence of other variables . ”
As a outcome , we have quite a passel of data about favorite colors around the world – and that blue comes out on top is fair undeniable , to be fair . Oh sure , there are some significant ethnical variance : in Asia , for case , people get it on whitened and hatred grey ; in West Africa , surveys find brown and blackto be favored , while red took the top spotin Europe and Central Africa . But in all these region , blue was still high up on the list – and as importantly , it was theonly color not connected to a tabooin any researched culture .
Other studies have find more evidence for blue ’s popularity . In 1981 , for example , researcher asked more than 400 people from across nine dissimilar ethnical groups to choose their favorite and least favoritecolors . “ resultant role showed that vivid blue was the only color that was commonly prefer extremely by all mathematical group , ” Saito reported .
In other words , bluemay not be everyone ’s favorite color worldwide , but it is a prettysafechoice . There ’s not all that many people out there whohateblue , relatively address ; when surveyed , people tend to link up it with a look of “ pleasantness ” rather than the antonym .
Now , why on the nose that take place is a query yet to be answer . Whether or not we like a colour is thought to be a multi - layered thing , with our stem reaction to it at the centerfield , deeper connections to the color above that , and shallower connections around the edge – so , for instance , witnessing your intact family getting eating by a tigermighthave more to do with your hatred of orange than the fact that Vogue say it ’s out of fashion this season .
But the near universality of blue urinate it interesting . “ Further sketch are necessary to clear up other factors which may influence this phenomenon , ” Saito wrote , “ because color predilection is such a fundamental human trait . ”
Seven?
On toseven , then , and this one is perhaps easier to explicate . Seven comes with two very big reward when it comes to being pick “ randomly ” : first of all , we ’re all very intimate with it – think “ seven deadly sinfulness ” , “ seven wonder of the Earth ” , “ seven days of the week ” , and unnumberable other septenary we ’re brought up knowing about – and second of all , it … well , itfeelsrandom .
No , we know that does n’t technically make sense , but you lie with what we intend , right ? “ The numbers one and 10 do n’t feel random enough , neither does two , nor the other even numbers , nor five , which is proper in the middle , ” explicate mathematics communicator and source Alex Bellosback in 2014 . “ So we apace eliminate all the numbers , bequeath us with seven , since seven is the only identification number that can not be divided or multiplied within the first 10 . ”
“ Our reply is determined by arithmetic , ” Bellos wrote . “ Seven ‘ feels ’ more random . It feel unlike from the others , more special , because – arithmetically speak – it is . ”
And , unlike our preference for blue , it seems like this really is it . We ’re not peculiarly force towards seven because we love it – although , apparently , wedolove it – but because we ’re trying to fulfill that “ random ” or “ arbitrary ” standard set forth by the question . We have intercourse this , because when you modify the dubiousness slightly – rewording it so that seven is still a logical answer , but not necessarily the “ most random ” one using the logic described above – the frequency with which it turn up drops dramatically .
For model : pick a number between six and 15 . Seven is a utterly valid option here , but you ’re much less likely to go for it – allot toone 1976 surveyof 237 college students , using these 10 alternative instead of the standard zero - to - nine interpretation discharge seven as a response from almost one in three to just barely over one in six . likewise , phrasing the question in a fashion that hint seven might be an “ obvious ” answer drops its popularity significantly .
In forgetful , the researchers concluded , “ the predominance of seven is due to a selection [ … ] incite by the desire toappear to complywith the petition of the experimenter , even when there is no utilitarian reason to do so . ”
“ The experimenter ’s request is basically a request for a ad-lib response , and the subject is place in a self-contradictory situation – only if he does not prove to follow can he follow , ” they reasoned . “ But then his response might notappearto be in compliancy because of its vulgarism or noticeability . So , if he wishes to appear to comply , the content must carefully select his response and thus go bad to comply . We trust that this is what subjects do . ”
Phenomenon?
So , it seems like there is at least a “ blue phenomenon ” and a “ seven phenomenon ” . But a “ blue-blooded seven phenomenon ” ? perhaps not so much .
What do we entail ? Well , in a few of those early studies , the “ downcast seven phenomenon ” was presented as something of an all - or - nothing : “ the predilection and preferred condition were categorized as conditional choices in a two - by - two eventuality table , ” explainedone 1977 investigationinto the effect .
When this idea was actually interrogated , though , it was found to be misleading . When the standard dyad of doubtfulness were place to more than 100 respondents , the results were as expected : “ The results replicate[d ] the earlier reports of a predilection for low-spirited and seven , ” the study admitted , and “ generally blue was chosen as the responder ' favorite colour . ”
But crucially , one being reliable had pretty much no bearing on whether the other would be so . “ No conditional relationship between blue and seven was observed , ” the discipline concluded .
In other speech ? Yeah , chance are fairly good you said “ blue ” up at the top of the clause . Sure , you most likely say “ seven ” . But the opportunity that you saidboth … well , it ’s less of a ease up after all .
