When shopping for clothes or toys for children, it's easy to distinguish between display aisles for girls and boys. Pink, purple, lace and ribbons dominate one side; while the opposite side of the aisle is full of blue, gray, black, green, or cars and pistols.
"Blue for men, pink for women", no parents are not familiar with this principle. But, do these gender norms really reflect the inherent biological differences between the sexes, or are they only built on the culture and advertising market?
The origin of "blue for men, pink for women"
Reporting from BBC, a 2007 study from Newcastle University found that the most favorite color is the choice for male and female adult participants is blue. But, on average, women tend to rate colors with reddish shades higher than men. Researchers suspect that this is rooted in prehistoric women who served as collectors of berries, so it would be more likely for women to be more familiar with wana with reddish shades of berries.
It is not quite clear why this factor must influence what someone likes and dislikes. Maybe this shows the sharpening of the improvement in skills that distinguishes red colors, but there is something less than this. If women evolved to love red due to attachment to food colors hundreds of thousands of years ago, this should be a universal characteristic, but the study found that the people of the Himba tribe in Namibia did not have favoritism for the reddish nuances of the women.
Cultural norms can also form color preferences. In societies where the principle of "blue for men, pink for women" is inherent in every member, babies will spend the period of growth and development initially using or even surrounded by these two colors. However, a 2011 study stated that babies, regardless of their gender, chose objects that were pink rather than other colors, and which were round or round in shape. After stepping on for two years, girls will tend to be more open in liking pink, and at the age of four, boys will begin to reject pink with all their body souls. This is the benchmark where children begin to realize their gender, to start talking about it, and even look around to find out what defines a man and what defines a woman.
You can argue that choosing colors for babies is not a big problem, but this can affect the way we - as adults - treat them. There is one large study that can support this idea: if a baby (without his gender first) is dressed in blue, the people around him will assume that he is a baby boy, invites him to play physical games and encourage them to play with plastic hammer. While when she is dressed in a pink shirt, people will treat her gently and choose dolls for their friends to play.
What about toys - robots for boys and dolls for girls?
There is no scientific evidence that can ensure that blue for men and pink for women. Indeed, until the beginning of the 20th century the color trend reversed: male infants would be dressed in pink and women's nuances in blue - which made it clearer that favorite color preferences were derived from socialization and learning, rather than the natural 'suit' of the human brain .
What about toy preferences?
Reporting from The Guardian, Professor Melissa Hines from Cambridge University managed to identify gender gaps in toy preferences. There is some evidence that the brains of boys are designed to express initial interest in rough and physical play and moving toys (such as cars), while women choose puppets and role playing. However, this study is not conclusive because the study subjects were infants and toddlers, making it difficult to analyze.
Although not a permanent guideline, boys are more likely to see toy cars when at a toy store and girls will be glued to a hall full of colorful dolls. Previous studies found that this was not only related to the gender of the child but also their exposure to the androgen hormone ("male" hormone) while still in the womb. This study even shows that there is a similarity of gender-based preferences in the group of monkeys, which concludes that toy preferences are determined by innate factors - regardless of how much they contribute.