Beyond Pink and Blue: How Gender Shapes Color Preferences

Blue unites while pink divides—or why women are ditching pink in favor of red.

Reviewed by Devon Frye

Key points

• A 2018 study explored gender differences in color preferences among children and adults.
• Blue was the most popular color for both age and gender groups, suggesting it's not just a "boy's color."
• Gender differences emerged for pink/purple and red preferences.
• Color preferences seem to be shaped more by social factors and gender stereotypes than innate preferences.

Walk into any children's clothing store and you'll see it immediately: the great divide. Blues, greens, reds, and blacks flood the boys' section, while pink and purple dominate the girls' area.

But is blue really (only) for boys and pink (only) for girls? Our research from 2018 challenged these assumptions, revealing a more complex picture than the pink-blue divide we've come to accept so widely.

In our study, we used a computerized color picker that allowed our participants—129 children (aged 10-14) and 180 adults (aged 17-48)—to select their favorite color from any shade a computer screen could display. Adults were also asked to choose their least favorite color. We categorized their chosen colors as “blue,” pink/purple,” “red,” or “other.”

Pink for Girls, Red for Boys, and Blue for Everyone

Blue wasn't just "for boys"—blue was the most popular color for both age and gender groups. Whether we were testing a 10-year-old girl or a 48-year-old man, blue consistently emerged as a favorite.

Our most intriguing findings revolved around pink/purple and red. While young girls were more likely than boys to choose pink/purple as their favorite color, this was different for the older group.

Adult women rarely selected pink/purple as their favorite color—about as often as they chose it as their least favorite color. Instead, they opted for red. Men and boys generally avoided pink/purple altogether, instead choosing red.

Emotional Meanings of Colors

According to the prominent Ecological Valence Theory (Palmer & Schloss, 2010 ), people like a certain color because it reminds them of a pleasant previous experience with that color. For instance, some people might favor blue because it reminds them of the pleasantness of a clear blue sky and clean waters. Others might favor red because it reminds them of love, passion, or strawberries.

To see whether such emotional associations would match the gender differences observed in color preferences, we next used a dataset from an independent study. Here, 183 adults associated emotions with the color terms pink, blue, and red (among others).

We found that both men and women viewed pink exclusively positively, blue had mainly positive emotions attached, but also some negative emotions, while red carried both positive (love, passion) and negative (danger, aggression) connotations. These results mirrored independent results collected from people around the globe, testing teenagers to the oldest adults (Jonauskaite et al., 2024).

The Status Factor

We assume that the results on pink and red have less to do with the color itself and more with what these colors represent socially. Pink is strongly associated with femininity, if not girly-ness—by extension reflecting the so-called "weaker sex" and, unfortunately, its lower social status. As a consequence, many people may consciously or unconsciously avoid this color range, boys in particular.

Red, on the other hand, is associated with power and exciting emotions, such as anger or passion. These color preferences and emotion associations fit into a broader pattern: While women have increasingly embraced traditionally masculine choices (from careers to colors), men have remained reluctant to adopt anything perceived as feminine, even to their detriment.

Thus, our results may not be about the aesthetics of pink and red, but more so about what pink and red symbolize in our society.

The Bigger Picture

Our research confirms that there is nothing inherently "boyish" about blue—it's a universally appealing color for children and adults of all genders. It also suggests that color preferences are shaped by social status and gender stereotypes rather than innate preferences. While young girls might choose pink, they move away from it as they grow older, likely because they become more aware of social status dynamics. Boys, on the other hand, may learn to avoid pink from an early age and choose red as an alternative.

As society continues to evolve in its understanding of gender, our findings raise interesting questions about the future of color preferences. Will pink eventually lose its gendered associations? Will we see more color equality in marketing and product design? And how will gendered color preferences play out in an increasingly non-binary world?

Only time will tell, but our research suggests that our relationship with colors is far more complex—and socially constructed—than we might have thought.

The authors conducted this research at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The complete scientific article "Pink for Girls, Red for Boys, and Blue for Both Genders: Colour Preferences in Children and Adults" was published in the journal Sex Roles.