Evaluation of colour stereotype profile of the population of eastern India

Abstract

The phrase “population stereotype” is used to depict the response preference, which refers to long-term behavior and well-ingrained awareness of a particular population. Colour is one of the main features of any visual scene having the potential to improve or spoil the user experience. The aim of the present work was to study and analyze the color stereotypes patterns of the population of Eastern India. To serve this purpose a color chart was prepared with four set of concepts represented by nine colors. 1640 adult female and 1987 male subjects from Eastern India were volunteered. The subjects were asked to choose colors to represent concepts. The color preferences were recorded as results. It was observed that a higher percentage of the female preferred red (66.42%) for “hot”, blue (35.65%) for “cold”, green (54.31%) for “on”, red (47.0%) for “off”, green (38%) for “safe”, red (77.4%) for “danger”, green (75.3%) for “go”, yellow (46.2%) for “caution” and red (76.5%) for “stop” symbols. There was no significant difference in the color preference between male and female subjects (except the female subjects who preferred black over red for “off”). Significant gender difference (p < 0.05 or less) was found for color stereotype strengths. There was no significant difference in color preferences and stereotype strengths between the rural and urban subjects of both sexes but for “cold” concept the urban males predominantly preferred pink color whereas rural males selected blue color. It may be concluded that no rural-urban difference in color stereotype was observed but gender had predominant impact on color stereotype of the population of Eastern India.