What is the psychology behind someone’s favorite color?从心理学上讲，我们为什么有最喜欢的颜色？

来自心理学学生 @David Lincoln Brooks 的回答：

1. Race种族

Art teacher and color theorist Josef Albers once conducted an experiment with his students. 艺术老师兼色彩理论家约瑟夫·阿波斯曾经用他的学生们做过一个实验。

He first asked them to paint a canvas with swatches of their favorite colors. Then he hung the results on the walls accompanied by a photograph of each student. 他首先让学生们在画布上用自己最喜欢的颜色画些色块。然后，它把这些作品挂在了墙上，并在每一个作品旁边放上了对应学生的照片。

An interesting pattern soon became apparent: people most liked the colors of their own bodies. 这时，出现了一个很有趣的结果：人们基本都更喜欢自己身体上的颜色。

Blue-eyed people were smitten with shades of blue. Blondes taken with yellow hues. Redheads were fascinated by various russet shades. Dark-skinned people with browns and olives.蓝眼睛的人对蓝色完全没有招架力。金发的人喜欢黄色系。红发的人则对各种红褐色着迷。深色皮肤的人喜欢棕色和橄榄绿。

2. Gender性别

Vance Packard, in his famous book THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS, said that store products— like boxes of detergent—- will sell better to women if they are packaged in red; conversely, he said, men are most attracted to store products packaged in blue. 万斯·帕卡德在他的著作《隐藏的说服者》当中说：像香体喷雾一类的货架商品，如果用红色的包装，就更容易让女性购买；相反地，他又说，男性更容易被蓝色包装的商品吸引。

If a man does pick a red, Packard claimed, it will be an orange-red, while women seem to prefer “cool” reds.帕卡德说：即使一个男性真的选择了一款红色商品，那这也会是一件橙红色的商品，而女性更倾向于“冷色调”的红色。

Me, I have recently noticed that many, many products aimed at men will come in a black or gray package, almost as if to say, “If you’re a man, you demand serious, no-nonsense products.” (And women don’t?).而我呢，我最近发现，很多针对男性消费者的商品都会用黑色或灰色的包装，简直就像是在说：“如果你是个男人，你就应该要这种严肃的、不开玩笑的商品。”（而女性就不是？）

The big question is: do the sexes like these colors because they were taught (brainwashed?) to do so by their parents and societies, or by a shadowy patriarchy? Or is there something more fundamental, even genetic, at work in our color preferences?现在主要的问题是：两性分别喜欢这些颜色到底是因为父母、社会、亦或是潜移默化的父权体系教他们这么做的（被洗脑了）？还是说，在我们的颜色偏好这件事上，有一些更基础的、甚至是基因层面的因素在起作用？

N.B.（注：nota bebe，源自拉丁文） I am just tossing up here things I’ve variously read on the subject. I do not submit them here as facts, necessarily, or as my own personal convictions on the subject.注意：我只是讲了些我在各处阅读到的材料。我并没有说他们都一定是确凿的事实，也不是说这些都是我对这个话题所抱的观点。