We will start with a seemingly simple question: is the color of the image above greenish blue or teal? It may seem somewhat insignificant, but the discussion about whether we see any object more blue than green or the opposite can generate more controversy than that famous white and gold dress (or blue and black) .
In this case it is not a visual trick, although the way in which the light strikes is also decisive , as it always is when it comes to distinguishing color tones. And it is not a matter of sexes, both men and women can fight that discussion from both sides. But it does serve as an example of the subjective or personal that can sometimes be to define a color and that without having physical anomalies that make it even more difficult.
We all know the famous plates in which we are asked to read the hidden number in a drawing made with bubbles of two colors. These types of tests are used to detect color blindness, a condition whereby it is impossible to distinguish between two specific shades, such as red and green. There are other tests aimed at diagnosing problems in color vision, below we show a version of one of them, the Farnsworth test , only in order to verify that this task may be more complex than it seems at first glance.
We may even be unable to differentiate some of the tones that appear in it even when we see the test result. And the theory tells us that this happens more frequently in the case of men . To understand why we first need to review how eyes and brain work in the perception of colors.
Objects have no color, we perceive them like this because of the wavelength of the light they reflect . And the final detection depends on the cones, photoreceptor cells located in the retina. We have about six million cones and if these do not work properly, anomalies such as color blindness occur. This condition is in fact more frequent in men than in women, and the reason is the same that explains that they may have greater capacity to differentiate colors.
There are three types of cones , each one is sensitive to a different wavelength: short wave (blue), medium wave (green) and long wave (red). Of these three types, two of them (green and red) are encoded on the X chromosome . Since the woman has two copies of that chromosome (XX) and the man only one (XY), it is as if they had a backup copy that prevents them from suffering this anomaly in case one of the chromosomes presents an alteration of this type. Although that will not prevent them from being carriers. On the other hand, if the man inherits an X chromosome with anomalous genes he will have a visual deficiency yes or yes.
This reality has another consequence, or at least that is what some scientists consider. If a woman inherits two types of X chromosome, there will be both normal and abnormal pigments in her retina. As a result, we could say that they could potentially have four types of cones. In fact, it is estimated that up to 12% of women have a tetrachromatic vision , which implies that they can perceive up to 100 times more colors than other people.
Leaving aside these 'super women' as far as color vision is concerned, there are more theories that support the thesis of the greater female ability to differentiate colors. Research published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences points to testosterone as ultimately responsible.
In this study they subjected large groups of young adults to different visual tests and found that, on a regular basis, men seemed to need a slightly longer wavelength than they did to perceive the same color. That means they could see the orange tones closer to the red ones or what they see as deep green with a certain yellowish touch.
But not everything is worse for them, this same study showed that men seem to have better ability to detect color changes at a distance . The researchers argue that both qualities can be explained by the most remote past: men were hunters and therefore needed to detect predators and prey while, women were gatherers and their function depended on knowing how to correctly differentiate foods such as wild berries.
Already today, this difference in color recognition has an addition: semantics. Regardless of our physical capacity, the truth is that culturally this quality has always been associated with women, and the ease and creativity in naming colors has a lot to do with it .
In a recent publication in Machine Vision and Applications , a team of Chinese and European scientists proposed expanding the list of usual colors from 11 to 39. The intention is to be able to better describe images for tasks of visual tracking or reidentification of people. There are only 39 colors, 11 basic and 28 additional, but it may cost more than we think to relate name and color.
If we find it difficult to locate the "mint green" or the "burgundy" we better not talk about "Tangerine Tango", "Radiant Orchid" or "Live Coral". They are just some of the names of those declared by Pantone as colors of the year in past editions. By 2020, the chosen hue has been "Classic Blue".
No doubt creativity is part of the job when naming a color, but also previous experience. After all, many rely on the relationship with known objects, such as coral or tangerine, to make sense.
In this women also play with advantage. According to a study by the University of Surrey, women use much more elaborate names to refer to colors, something that also proved to improve with age (for both sexes) or with the practice of color-related hobbies (in the case of the men).
In a more casual tone but at the same time revealing, the artist and scientist Von Worley developed a visualization with the results of the survey conducted on a website dedicated to comics. It asked respondents (who turned out to be more than 220,000) to name a series of colors. As a result, he obtained more than 5 million names, which are classified by popularity and sex on the visualization.
Men clearly adhere more to a basic definition (green, blue, pink), while women proved to be much more creative or specific in their task: "neon lavender", "faded rose", "blush" ... But on the male side there were also contributions that are worth noting, such as the color "skin", the color "vomit" or the color "greener", as well as all derivatives "pinkish", "bluish", "reddish" ... No doubt the discussions about what color to paint a wall can be most entertaining.
(The color of the first image is bluish green, or so the canons say).
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