(…) Although we often complain how stereotyped and restrictive pink for girls and blue for boys is, we rarely pause to consider why. We tend to assume that it has always been that way. Which it hasn’t.

According to historians, at the start of the last century blue was seen as dainty and delicate; pink was thought to be stronger and bolder. It was only after the Second World War that the colour preference reversed, becoming more marked in the Fifties and Sixties as children became a distinct consumer market.

“I think it follows a clear pattern and there’s got to be more to it than culture,” says Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer, a child development specialist. “Even if girls are encouraged to wear pink, you’d expect 50 per cent to reject it, but they don’t. In tests boys always pick out darker colours and girls the lighter ones.” Yet blue has always been popular with both sexes, possibly because it was a symbol of good luck. In ancient myth it was thought to ward off evil and it is also associated with the Virgin Mary.

What really drives the taste for different colours, whichever way round they may be, is the desire for separate identity, says Dr Lance Workman, an evolutionary psychologist. “From 3 until adolescence, children don’t like the opposite sex so they’ll seek out whatever’s different.”

Hartley-Brewer agrees: “They’re using the colours to explore what it means to be male or female. From 7 onwards, they’re also starting to identify more with their friends, and if they’re wearing pink, that’s the brand image they’ll choose.”

Finally, you could point out that last year a study by researchers at Newcastle University discovered evidence suggesting that girls are born with an affinity for pink. When 208 men and women in their early twenties were asked to choose their preferred colour from a series of paired rectangles, the females showed a marked preference for reddish colours. Dr Anya Hurlbert, a neuroscientist who led the research, suggests that this may be on account of the way our ancestors found food; while women foraged for berries, the men were more likely to go out hunting. “Evolution may have driven females to prefer reddish colours; reddish fruits.” (…)

Source: Times Online, UK
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