Similarities in Color Preferences Between Women and Men: The Case of Hadza, the Hunter-Gatherers From Tanzania

Perception. 2019. Vol. 48. No. 5. P. 428–436.

Groyecka A., Witzel C., Butovskaya M., Sorokowski P.

Evidence for cross-cultural patterns of sexual differences in color preferences raised the question of whether these preferences are determined by universal principles. To address this question, we investigated most- and least-favorite color choices in a nonindustrialized community, the Hadza that has an egalitarian hunter-gatherer culture, fundamentally different from those previously investigated. We also compared color preference patterns in the Hadza with published data from Poland and Papua. Our results show that Hadza have very different color preferences than Polish and Papuan Yali respondents. Unlike many industrialized and nonindustrialized cultures, Hadza color preferences are practically the same for women and men. These observations question the idea of universal differences of color preferences between sexes and raise important questions about the determinants of color preferences.

Keywords: Hadza, sex differences, color preferences, indigenous cultures